Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama announced an executive action Wednesday that allows the Treasury Department to impose financially punitive sanctions against cyber hackers who impose a significant threat to national security.

"This Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to impose sanctions on individuals or entities that engage in malicious cyber-enabled activities that create a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States," Obama said In a statement announcing Wednesday's executive order.

The action comes after November's cyberattack on Sony Pictures that the FBI pinned on North Korea. At the time Obama said that private companies bowing to intimidation from cyberhackers would set a problematic precedent and he questioned Sony's decision to pull its movie "The Interview."

In January the White House leveled financial sanctions against officials within the North Korean government as part of what Obama called a "proportional response" to the Sony hacking.

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