The White House Council of Economic Advisers has called on public and commercial sectors to advance collaboration to address cybersecurity risks.The council said Wednesday the private sector has initiated efforts to prevent cyber threats through IT system security efforts and development of platforms that work to facilitate cyber vulnerability threat sharing.
The government sector should also facilitate cyber protection through dissemination of security standards and best practices, cyber research and efforts to build up cyber workforce.
The agency said the U.S. economy incurred approximately $57 billion in 2016 costs due to cyber threat actors and those costs were associated with the loss of data, equipment and revenues as well as intellectual property theft.
The council also cited the reluctance of companies to share data and its impact on the cyber insurance market as well as underreporting of cyber vulnerabilities.
“As a result of this underreporting, the frequencies and costs of various types of malicious cyber activity directed at firms are largely unknown, and this lack of information hampers the ability of all actors to respond effectively and immediately,†the council added.
