Cybersecurity

Obama warns of U.S. weaknesses on cybersecurity

President Barack Obama told a European audience that hackers have targeted the White House and that officials must do more to secure their communications.

"I think we're going to have to do better and learn from mistakes" in protecting government information from hackers or unauthorized disclosure, Obama said July 10 during a press conference in Madrid, Spain. "Some of it will have to do with how we train personnel from the very top -- how I use my smartphone or BlackBerry all the way down to the lowest-level staffer."

"We know we've had hacking in the White House," he added, and training government officials to follow sound IT security practices "will be a work in progress."

A group of former federal officials has given Obama a mixed scorecard on cybersecurity. The former officials said in May that his administration has done a good job of making cybersecurity relevant to top agency officials but could have instilled accountability earlier on and done more to follow through on the policy recommendations it received.