#Obama says US needs to aggressively bolster defenses against hackers

Responding to a recent cyber attack on US government computers, President Barack Obama said on Monday the United States has old computer systems with “significant vulnerabilities” to cyber attacks and needs to be “much more aggressive” in stepping up defenses against hackers.

“This problem is not going to go away. It is going to accelerate. And that means that we have to be as nimble, as aggressive and as well-resourced as those who are trying to break into these systems,” Obama said at a news conference at the G7 summit in Germany.

He urged the US Congress to move forward on passing cybersecurity legislation. The personnel records of an estimated 4 million current and former federal government employees were compromised, the Obama administration disclosed Thursday. Obama declined to discuss who US authorities think was behind a massive breach.

Several US officials, who requested anonymity, said the hackers were believed to have been based in China but that it was not yet known if the Chinese government or criminal elements were involved. Another US official said the breach was being investigated as a matter of national security, meaning it may have originated from a foreign government.