President Obama’s April Fools' Day Order on Cyberterrorism – No Joking About It!

While it’s not clear whether the President’s release today of an Executive Order, "Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities," was purposefully timed to coincide with April Fools' Day, it is apparent that the government is ratcheting up its fight against cyberterrorism and making no joke about it. Taking a page from its playbook of sanctions enforced against supporters of the Crimean invasion, members and abettors of the Syrian regime, WMD proliferators, and numerous others who are anathema to U.S. foreign policy and economic interests, the Order authorizes imposition of blocking and freezing sanctions on persons determined to be responsible for, or complicit in, malicious cyber-enabled activities and misappropriation of trade secrets that have harmed, or are likely to harm, the national security, foreign policy, economic health or financial stability of the United States.

Continue reading here.