“What is the President’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP)? It’s the capstone of more than seven years of effort from this administration that takes near-term actions and puts in place a long-term strategy to ensure the federal government, the private sector, and American citizens can take better control of our digital security.

The President’s plan takes new action both now and in the long-term to help the conditions we need to improve our approach on cybersecurity across the federal government, the private sector, and our personal lives. Here’s a brief look at what it does:

• Establishes a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity that will bring top strategic, business, and technical thinkers from outside the government to make critical recommendations on how we can use  new technical solutions and best practices to protect our privacy and public safety
• Transforms how the government will manage cybersecurity through the proposal of a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund and a new Federal Chief Information Security Officer to help retire, replace, and modernize legacy IT across the government
• Empowers Americans to secure their online accounts by using additional security tools – like multi-factor authentication and other identity processing steps – and by working with Google, Facebook, DropBox, Microsoft, Visa, PayPal, and Venmo to secure online accounts and financial transactions
• Invests more than $19 billion for cybersecurity as part of the President’s budget – a more than 35 percent increase from last year’s request to secure our nation in the future

You can dig into all of the specifics the CNAP here.

What does his plan do to help protect my privacy online? While there is no silver bullet to fully guarantee our data security, the President has done a lot to enhance security measures on a lot of our daily activities to protect our private information. Last year, he took executive action as part of his BuySecure Initiative to help drive the market toward more secure payments by pushing companies to use microchips instead of magnetic strips or PINs on credit, debit, and other payment cards. Building on those actions, the President called on Americans to think differently about how they log on. For example, instead of just a basic password, Americans should leverage multiple factors of authentication when logging-in to online accounts. Have a Gmail account? Check out their two-step authenticator as a way to better protect your privacy. Are you on Twitter? Your account can have two-step verification, too. Along with your personal information, it’s also important that you protect your financial transactions with businesses. As of today, we have supplied over 2.5 million more secure Chip-and-PIN payment cards, more than any other country in the world, and under his new plan we will also offer cybersecurity training to reach over 1.4 million small businesses. We’re doing a lot to prevent cybercrime, but if you’re a victim of identity theft, you don’t have to deal with the consequences alone. Check out IdentityTheft.gov to report identity theft, create a personal recovery plan, and print pre-filled letters and forms to send to credit bureaus, businesses, and debt collectors…”

• Learn everything you need to know about the President’s plan here