The Telecom Industry's Pushback Against Cybersecurity

On the same day he delivered his State of the Union address, President Obama ordered the U.S. to shore up its cyberdefenses. “We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets,” Obama said in the Feb. 12 speech. “Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems.”

The executive order calls for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify which “critical infrastructure” is vulnerable to a cyberattack that would be catastrophic to the economy and public safety. It comes amid intensifying strikes from Chinese hackers on American corporations and newspapers. Homeland Security is writing standards that will initially be voluntary, but the agency is supposed to push the regulators that oversee the affected industries to adopt the rules as binding.