President Obama issued executive order aimed at protecting nation’s critical infrastructure against cyberattack. Order establishes framework for creating voluntary security standards and industry best practices for utilities and other entities defined as critical infrastructure. Voluntary compliance is expected to be widespread, particularly among companies that do business with the government or are already under some form of regulatory oversight. Whether standards should remain voluntary or mandated by Congress will be a key issue of debate this year. Congress could decide to make standards and best practices mandatory for all critical infrastructure companies.”]

