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Senate Republicans recently deep sixed proposed cyber security legislation, which led to the possibility that the White House may issue an executive order to provide the changes said to be needed to shore up the country's defenses against cyberattacks.

White House press secretary Jay Carney was quoted in The Hill as saying via email "In the wake of Congressional inaction and Republican stall tactics, unfortunately, we will continue to be hamstrung by outdated and inadequate statutory authorities that the legislation would have fixed. Moving forward, the President is determined to do absolutely everything we can to better protect our nation against today's cyber threats and we will do that."

The administration offered a legislation package of its own in 2011. The Cyber Security Act, sponsored by Sens. Joe Liebermann (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) would have proposed that private companies and the government share information about threats and would have mandated that critical infrastructure operators meet minimum cyber security standards. But Republicans balked, concerned that the legislation would "burden businesses with unnecessary and ineffective regulations," the Hill article said.

Sponsors then offered a bill with weaker regulatory provisions, but that wasn't enough and the bill failed in the Senate.

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