US President, Donald Trump, orders federal agencies to find a solution to stop cyberattackers and to review how vulnerable they are.

He has instructed federal agency heads to inspect all federal departments’ cybersecurity vulnerabilities and capabilities, using all government resources to support data and studies.

The American Technology Council will be mostly relied on to carry out the studies, with the initiative to oversee the federal governments modernisation efforts, by pulling in practices from the private sector – even though they are heavily criticised for replicating the work of other government agencies, according to Politico, an American political-journalism company.

“One provision may indicate that the administration isn’t closing the door on private cyber security companies,” says the Director of the Cyber Security Project at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Michael Sulmeyer.

“His order instructs the Department of Commerce to help identify ways to reduce the threats posed by botnets, swarms of compromised computers or smartphones acting on the instructions of a hacker. If they decide to run an inclusive process with private sector input, then hats off. If they don’t, then I’m sure the private sector will feel cut out.”

The Director of the American Technology Council has been asked to submit a report within 90 days.

Edited from source by Leah Alger

Source: SFGATE