Obama Says He Will Name National Cybersecurity Adviser - washingtonpost.com

Obama said he will name a senior White House official to coordinate government efforts to protect a "strategic national asset": the digital networks that handle phone calls, e-mails, government and military data, and also control power grids, nuclear plants and airplane traffic.

Obama Says He Will Name National Cybersecurity Adviser - washingtonpost.com

President Obama Delivers Remarks on Cyber Security Strategy

But none of this progress would be possible, and none of these 21st century challenges can be fully met without America's digital infrastructure, the backbone that underpins a prosperous economy and a strong military and an open and efficient government. Without that foundation, we can't get the job done. It's long been said that the revolutions in communications and information technology have given birth to a virtual world.

But make no mistake, this world, cyberspace, is a world that we depend on every single day. It's our hardware and our software, our desktops and laptops and cell phones and Blackberries that have become woven into every aspect of our lives. It's the broadband networks beneath us and the wireless signals around us, the local networks in our schools and hospitals and businesses and the massive grids that power our nation.

It's the classified military and intelligence networks that keep us safe and the Worldwide Web that has made us more interconnected than at any time in human history. So cyberspace is real, and so are the risks that come with it. It's the great irony of our information age, the very technologies that empower us to create and to build also empower those who would disrupt and destroy. And this paradox, seen and unseen, is something that we experience every day. It's about the privacy and economic security of American families. We rely on the Internet to pay our bills, to bank, to shop, to file our taxes.

President Obama Delivers Remarks on Cyber Security Strategy