Digital Sanctions Target Iran, Syria

President Obama showed his bark is backed by “byte” Monday when he unrolled a new set of cybersanctions against Syria and Iran. The president specifically took aim at the “digital guns for hire,” who he said help nations use technology to conduct human-rights abuses against their own citizens. In a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Obama explained that his executive order authorizing the new sanctions should warn errant nations that “these technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them.” Obama signed the executive order Saturday, and the sanctions’ targets include Iran’s elite military forces and the head of Syrian intelligence.