President Barack Obama has issued new agency standards for protecting classified information from insider threats.

In a Presidential Memorandum issued Wednesday, Obama provided the heads of executive branch departments and agencies the new National Insider Threat Policy as well as the minimum standards to be employed by each agency in standing up its own insider-threat programs. Details on the new policy and the standards were not made public.

In an October 2011 executive order, the President created the Insider Threat Task Force charged with setting governmentwide policy for the “deterrence, detection and mitigation” of insider threats.

The order also called on the task force to create minimum standards governing agencies’ individual insider-threat programs.

The new standards aim to provide agencies with the “minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs,” Obama said.

These include:

• The ability to “gather, integrate and centrally analyze and respond” to threat information
• Monitoring employee use of classified networks
• Providing insider-threat awareness training to employees
• Protecting employees’ civil liberties and ensuring privacy protections

“The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security,” Obama said.

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