The White House has already indicated that it is considering the use of an to protect critical networks if Congress fails to pass broadly acceptable cybersecurity legislation in a timely manner. The timing of such an action remains unclear.
Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .
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in Computerworld's Cyberwarfare Topic Center.