(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama is making a renewed push today for stalled legislation that would give companies legal protections for sharing information about hacking threats with each other and the government.

Although the legislation has languished on Capitol Hill for four years, the White House is seizing on recent high-profile hacking attacks against Sony Pictures Entertainment, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other companies to build momentum for a final agreement.

"In this interconnected, digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyberassaults both in the private sector and the public sector," Obama said today in a White House statement. "Some of them are going to be state actors; some of them are going to be non-state actors. All of them are going to be sophisticated and many of them can do some damage."

Obama called on Congress to pass legislation that allows for companies to share threat information with the government and other businesses yet make sure companies wouldn't run afoul of antitrust laws. The president is expected to speak about the measures later today at the Homeland Security Department's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in the Washington suburbs.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.