Obama signs order creating new cyber sanctions program

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama today created the first-ever sanctions program to penalize overseas hackers who engage in cyber spying and companies that knowingly benefit from the fruits of that espionage, potentially including state-owned corporations in Russia and China.

"Cyberthreats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States," Obama said in a statement after signing an executive order creating the sanctions.

The order was the latest attempt by his administration to come up with options short of direct retaliation to deal with a growing cyberthreat coming from both nations and criminal groups.

It gives the U.S. the authority to sanction individuals and companies, though no specific penalties were announced. Obama said the sanctions would apply to those engaged in malicious cyber activity that aims to harm critical infrastructure, damage computer systems, and steal trade secrets or sensitive information.

In a fact sheet, the White House said the sanctions would also apply to "a corporations that knowingly profits from stolen trade secrets." Analysts have long suspected that state-owned companies in China and Russia are complicit in economic cyber espionage that targets the intellectual property of Western companies.