Obama urges companies to work with gov't on cybersecurity

　　SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obamaon Friday called on private sector to work more closely and sharemore data on cyber threats with federal government in a summit oncybersecurity at Stanford University.

　　The White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protectionbrought government officials and business executives together tohelp shape public and private sector efforts to protect Americanconsumers and companies from network threats.

　　The one-day event aimed to address such topics as public-privatecollaboration on cybersecurity, improving cybersecurity practicesand technology and promoting more secure payment technologies.Among the participants were CEOs from technology companies,financial institutions and other industries as well as secretariesof U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department ofCommerce.

　　In his keynote speech, Obama noted that countering cyber threatshas to be a shared mission.

　　As so much of the country's computer networks and criticalinfrastructure are in the private sector," government cannot dothis alone," he said. "But the fact is that the private sectorcan't do it alone either, because it's government that often hasthe latest information on new threats."

　　The only one way to defend America from these cyber threats are"through government and industry working together, sharingappropriate information as true partners," he said.

　　Obama signed an executive order right after the speech topromote public and private cooperation. The order encouragesprivate sectors to create information sharing hubs for particularthreats or in specific regions. It also gives government agenciesauthority to share cybersecurity data with the information hubs andcompanies easier access to secret cybersecurity information.

　　Cybersecurity has become Obama's top agenda this year as quite anumber of American retailers, financial institutions and othercompanies reported consumer data breaches in past two years, withthe Sony Picture attack and Athem being the recent cases.

　　Although the administration continuously asks technologycompanies for more cybersecurity cooperation and data-sharing, theyare reluctant to do so, having concerns about privacy after therevelation of National Security Agency's online surveillance byEdward Snowden. It's reported that CEOs of tech giants Google,Facebook and Yahoo were invited to this summit but they chose tostay away. Enditem