US President Barack Obama called Friday on Silicon Valley to put aside distrust of the government and become allies in defending cyberspace from terrorists, hackers and spies.

Obama's call came at a California summit, where he signed an executive order aimed at spurring better and faster sharing of cyber threats between the private sector and government.

"This has to be a shared mission," Obama said at a White House summit on cybersecurity at Stanford University, considered the birthplace of Google, Yahoo, and other technology titans.

He likened the Internet to the "wild, wild West" and said that the government was expected to be the sheriff.

Obama's executive order lays out a framework for expanded information sharing designed to help companies work together, and work with the federal government, to quickly identify and protect against cyber threats.

The new measure goes beyond a similar order signed by Obama last February, by allowing for cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security and private sector entities aimed at sharing data on threats.

It also makes it easier for private sector firms to gain access to classified threat information to step up cyber defenses.

In January, the White House made a renewed push for a new cybersecurity law, asking the new Congress to revive an initiative stalled over the past few years.