U.S. President Obama on Wednesday issued an Executive Order to impose sanctions on individuals and entities found responsible for malicious cyber-enabled activities that threat the national security of the United States. The Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to impose those sanctions.

Under the program, cyber attackers or those who conduct commercial espionage in cyberspace can be listed on the official sanctions list of specially designated nationals, a deterrent long-sought by the cyber community.

"We live in an information age and the very networks that we rely on to enable many aspects of our increasingly digital lives are vulnerable to cyberattack. With this Order, President Obama is taking action to give America a new way to confront the growing threat posed by significant malicious cyber actors that may be beyond the reach of our existing capabilities," representatives of the White House said in a blog post.