U.S. President Barack Obama last week issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency and deputizing the Treasury Secretary and Attorney General to apply sanctions and other consequences for international actors engaged in cyber-enabled activities The order aims to punish the perpetrators and facilitators of international malicious hacking activities. Research advocacy groups worry that the executive action could have a chilling effect on security research. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says the order is a bad response to a very real problem, comparing the order to certain flawed legislative solutions to the cybersecurity problem.
Source: https://threatpost.com/white-house-executive-order-declares-cyber-national-emergency/112041/