President Obama and US cyber security policy

ABSTRACT

Advancements in Information and Communications Technology have had an enormous impact on modern societies. As a consequence, an increased number of governments has developed national cyber security policies. This article specifically focuses on the contribution of President Barack Obama to the development of cyber security policy in the United States. In particular, this is a study of the policy measures that directly affected US national security in the core areas of homeland security, defence and foreign policy. These measures include strategic documents, organisational initiatives, and additional measures originating from the US federal government, mostly from the White House. The main argument of the article is that, although having been discussed by US policymakers at least since the 1960s, US cyber security policy only took off and became a national security priority during the Obama years, when the administration decided to move from ad-hoc and sector-specific measures to a more structured and holistic approach. Tellingly, Obama’s record shows a notable number of ‘firsts’, that is of measures which tackled aspects of cyber security which had not been addressed before. Finally, the article also develops and discusses a new working definition of cyber security policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyber security
• Barack Obama
• cyber policy
• national security
• United States of America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eugenio Lilli

Dr Eugenio Lilli is a Lecturer in American Studies and Coordinator of the Master Program in American Politics and Foreign Policy at University College Dublin, Clinton Institute for American Studies. His current research focuses on US cyber security policy.