article_snippet.sent: Barack Obama declared the threat of cyber attacks by foreign agents a 'national emergency' as Barack Obama unveiled plans to impose sanctions on hackers in the wake of an epidemic of attacks against American networks.
article_snippet.sent: Barack Obama took aim at Russia, China and Iran China and Iran Iran as Barack Obama revealed an executive order which will allow the U.S. Treasury  to freeze or block assets of those involved in attacks on 'critical' American computer networks.
article_snippet.sent: National emergency': Barack Obama unveiled plans to impose sanctions on hackers after an epidemic of attacks . 'an epidemic of attacks’s one of the great paradoxes of our Information Age — the very technologies that empower our to do great good can also be used by adversaries to inflict great harm,' he wrote in a blog post on Medium.
article_snippet.sent: Barack Obama said cyber attacks - many which originate from overseas - 'pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States'.
article_snippet.sent: Barack Obama said hackers working in China and Russia target America's defense contractors and the systems designed to support China's troops, while hackers in Iran were targeting banks and North Korea went after Sony.
article_snippet.sent: Michael Daniel, special assistant to Barack Obama and cyber security co-ordinator, said the new sanctions would 'go after the worst of the worst of malicious cyber actors', while Barack Obama assured people people would 'in no way target the unwitting victims of cyberattacks,' such as people whose computers are hijacked.
article_snippet.sent: Ms Monaco, wrote in a blog: 'In just the past year, we have seen a significant increase in the frequency, scale, and sophistication of cyber incidents targeting the American people, including everything from large data breaches and significant intrusions to destructive and coercive cyber attacks intended to influence the way ordinary Americans exercise ordinary Americans constitutional rights. '
article_snippet.sent: In many cases, these threats stem from actors overseas using malicious cyber activities to inflict harm on Americans without ever leaving their desks.'
article_snippet.sent: Ms Monaco warned 'no one connected to the internet is immune' to the threat, buyt added the sanctions  are 'not a tool that we will use every day' and 'law-abiding companies have absolutely nothing to worry about'.
highlights_snippet.sent: Barack Obama made announcement following high profile cyber attacks .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Says hackers targeting U.S. from places including Russia, China and Iran .
  