President Obama's Cyber Legacy

The Obama Administration made an unprecedented all-fronts effort to secure cyberspace. So, why are we less secure? For eight years, cyberspace proved the Obama Administration’s most unpredictable adversary, always twisting in new directions and delivering body blows where least expected. The administration took the cyber threat seriously from day one, launching reviews, promulgating policy, raising defenses and punishing cyberspace’s most dangerous actors. That included imposing sanctions against Russia and North Korea and indicting government-linked hackers from China and Iran.

But, in the end, cyberspace won. President Barack Obama will leave office this week following an election in which digital breaches ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin helped undermine the losing candidate Hillary Clinton, sowed doubts about the winner Donald Trump’s legitimacy and damaged faith in the nation’s democratic institutions. If there is one fundamental reason for the Obama Administration’s inability to claim victory over cybersecurity, experts and former officials say it is this: The threat grew and mutated faster than the administration’s ability to deal with it.