President Obama plans to continue his focus on privacy and data security today with an announcement of cybersecurity-related proposals.

In remarks scheduled for later today at the National Cybersecurity Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), President Obama will announce an updated cybersecurity legislative proposal, which would encourage the private sector to quickly share cyberthreat information with NCCIC.  NCCIC would then share the threat data with relevant federal agencies.

The White House has not released text of the proposed legislation.  A brief fact sheet, released today, states that companies that share threat information would receive “targeted liability protection,” but it does not provide further details about the scope of this protection.  Some privacy advocates have criticized such liability limits, and the disagreement has impeded recent progress on cybersecurity legislation.

The White House states that the proposal would require companies to remove unnecessary personal information and take “measures to protect any personal information that must be share din order to qualify for liability protection.”  The Homeland Security Department, Attorney General, and Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board would develop guidelines for receipt, retention, use, and disclosure of the information.

President Obama also will propose provisions that would allow the government to prosecute the sale of botnets and the overseas sale of stolen U.S. financial account information.  President Obama’s proposal also would update the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to apply to cybercrime, and update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to ensure “that insignificant conduct does not fall within the scope of the statute, while making it clear that it can be used to prosecute insiders who abuse their ability to access information to use it for their own purposes.”

The White House will host a summit on cybersecurity and consumer protection at Stanford University on February 13, 2015.  And on Thursday, Vice President Biden will announce that the Energy Department will provide more $25 million in grants to historically black colleges and universities for cybersecurity education.

Today’s cybersecurity announcement comes a day after President Obama’s announcement at the Federal Trade Commission that he will propose a package of privacy-related legislation, included a national data breach reporting bill.

As the administration releases more details about President Obama’s privacy and cybersecurity proposals, I\we will provide further analysis.