“The cyber world is sort of the wild, wild west and to some degree we are asked to be the sheriff,” Obama said during public remarks at California’s Stanford University.                       

The American President said that threats posed in the cyber theater extend far beyond the virtual world, requiring cooperation between the government and the private sector.

“Just as we are all connected like never before, we have to work together like never before, both to seize opportunities but also meet the challenges of this information age,” he said.

In order to promote information sharing, Obama used the public forum to sign an executive order that facilitates such sharing among the private sector, and with the government. 

Confidence in cybersecurity in the U.S. was shaken by a massive attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment last November, as well as data breaches at retailers, including Target and Home Depot.

“These attacks are hurting American companies and costing American jobs. So this is also a threat to America’s economic security,” Obama said.

But notably absent from Obama’s speech in the tech hub of Silicon Valley were Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Larry Page and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer – the heads of three of the tech world’s biggest companies.

Private-government relationships were soured following the disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that revealed the government had been secretly collecting data from tech companies for its mass surveillance programs.