President Barack Obama's administration is drafting an executiveorder that would create a program protecting vital computernetworks from cyber attacks, according to two former governmentofficials with direct knowledge of the effort.

The program, to be managed by the Department of HomelandSecurity, would establish cybersecurity standards that companiescould voluntarily adopt to better protect banks, telecommunicationnetworks and the U.S. power grid from electronic attacks, theofficials, who have seen the draft, said on condition of anonymitybecause the document hasn't been made public.

The draft, which remains under review and could change, seeks toimplement a key provision in a cybersecurity bill that failed toadvance in the Senate last month, the officials said. Theadministration is contemplating using an executive order because itisn't clear Congress would pass a cybersecurity bill.