Proposed US legislation aims to provide greater cyber security and give law enforcement more powers to fight cyber crime.

In a press release issued by The White House, the Obama Administration proposed greater collaboration on cyber security between the public and government sectors, specifically with regard to sharing information about potential cyber security threats.

In addition, the US government called for better security breach reporting. It suggested simplifying and standardising the existing patchwork of state laws into one federal statute, and a clear and timely notice requirement to ensure that companies notify their employees and customers about security breaches.

"Law enforcement must have appropriate tools to investigate, disrupt and prosecute cyber crime," said The White House. The legislation contains provisions that would allow for the prosecution of the sale of botnets, which are used to power the kinds of unsophisticated DDoS attacks that nevertheless regularly bring down online gaming services.

More specifically, the legislation would "give courts the authority to shut down botnets engaged in distributed denial of service attacks and other criminal activity," said The White House.

The White House will discuss the legislation with major stakeholders at a summit on February 13, 2015.