US Defense Secretary to Announce New Pentagon Cybersecurity Policy

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is expected to unveil the new Pentagon Cybersecurity Strategy on Thursday.

Carter is due to make the announcement during his address to Silicon Valley executives at Stanford University in a bid to enhance cooperation between the Pentagon and high-tech companies.

The document is an updated version of an earlier first-generation 2011 US online security strategy policy. It is considered an action plan to define the current US approach to online security and to provide swift and effective responses to unwarranted network access, theft and other illegal online activities.

The number of attacks on the online presences of public and private institutions across the United States has seen an unprecedented increase in recent years. Among recent high-profile hacker targets are the White House, the US Central Command, JP Morgan Chase and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In February, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Russia, China, Iran and North Korea present major threats to online security to Washington.

Criminal activity online is broadly estimated to cost the United States $100 billion annually, more than any other country, Intel Security, a corporate web site, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank, said in a report released last summer.