US to establish new cybersecurity agency

The CTIIC will aim for "seamless intelligence flows among centers, including those responsible for sharing with the private sector," the official said.

The White House counterterrorism coordinator, Lisa Monaco, will announce the new center in an address on Tuesday.

The Obama administration likens the new agency to the National Counterterrorism Center established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, following criticism that US intelligence agencies were not communicating with each other.

It will have a similar broad focus of providing "integrated, all-source analysis" of threats, the official said.

"No existing agency has the responsibility for performing these functions, so we need these gaps to be filled to help the federal government meet its responsibilities in cybersecurity," the official said.

Congress has tried for years to pass legislation to encourage companies to share data from cyberattacks with the government and each other, but efforts were stymied by liability issues and privacy concerns of citizens.

Last month, President Barack Obama proposed legislation to strike a balance, offering liability protection to companies that provide information in near real time to the government, while requiring them to strip it of personal data.

The Washington Post first reported the agency's creation.