Washington insiders say it is almost certain that  Barack Obama will once again bypass Congress in the coming weeks and issue an executive order on cybersecurity, a prospect that has  worried privacy groups.

The order is expected to place new demands on  private companies to share information with the government, intelligence  agencies and even the military. Watchdogs fear that the order will allow the  federal government to wield excessive power over areas such as water plants,  financial systems and the electric grid.

A permanent legislative solution has not been  reached, with the latest effort falling flat in August. Obama was expected to  issue the order in December. However, insiders say that the economic crisis has  stalled those plans.

“It’d be reasonable to say that releasing the  executive order now would irritate Congress and might create an unnecessary  burden for reaching a deal on the fiscal issues,” said James Lewis, director of  the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and  International Studies.

“Every day they get closer to Christmas it makes  less sense to put it out, unless you want to hide it,” Lewis said.

“With attention on [the] fiscal cliff and the  holiday season, it is hard to imagine getting all the agency approvals in place  in the next week,” said Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, a partner at Monument Policy  Group and former general counsel on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Without specifically commenting on the executive order, White  House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden noted “We have been reaching out extensively to  both the private sector and Congress to seek their input, and are continuing our  internal deliberations,”

“Given the gravity of the threats we face in cyberspace, we  want to get this right, in addition to getting it done swiftly.” Hayden said in  a statement.

As we recently reported, the National Security Agency has refused to release details of a secret presidential directive Obama signed off in October which experts believe could allow the military and intelligence agencies to operate on the networks of private companies, such as Google and Facebook.

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