A new bill proposes a nationwide standard on how consumers will be alerted about their leaked personal information.
The Hill has received a copy of a bill submitted by Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on behalf of himself and four other Republican senators that establishes national standards on how companies report security breaches related to personal information.
News of the proposed legislation arrives after an Illinois woman filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit against LinkedIn in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit alleges that LinkedIn violated promises to its users by not having better means to secure private data, thus allowing a hacker to gather more than six million passwords and post them online. Both eHarmony and Last.fm were also breached, reporting stolen passwords.
Toomey, alongside Senators Olympia Snowe (Maine), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Dean Heller (Nev.), introduced the Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2012 (S.3333) on Thursday. This act requires corporations, trusts, cooperatives and similar entities -- those that retain personal data -- to inform users of a breach as quickly as possible.
According to The Hill, the breached entities must inform affected users on the actual date their personal information was discovered to be accessed, what was actually stolen, and how to contact the breached entity for more information. Personal information covered by the legislation includes Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, financial account numbers, credit or debit card numbers and related security codes. Notifications can be distributed on paper, by email or through a telephone.
"A covered entity shall notify the Secret Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the fact that a breach of security has occurred if the number of individuals whose personal information the covered entity reasonably believes to have been accessed and acquired by an unauthorized person exceeds 10,000."
In the event of a breach of security of a system maintained by a third-party entity that has been contracted to maintain, store, or process data in electronic form containing personal information on behalf of a covered entity who owns or processes such data, the third-party entity will notify the covered entity of the breach of security, the bill adds.
Failure to follow the notification standard under the act results in a fine up to $500,000 USD.
The Hill reports thsat many Republicans in Congress have already expressed support for legislature similar to the Data Security Act because they would rather see a singular, national standard rather than differing state laws.
"This Act preempts any law, rule, regulation, requirement, standard, or other provision having the force and effect of law of any State, or political subdivision of a State, relating to the protection or security of data in electronic form containing personal information or the notification of a breach of security," the document states.
For more information about the proposed Data Security and Breach Notification Act, head here.
That's chump change compared to a PR disaster. Look at Sony for example. Up the fines or companies are simply going to write off $500,000 as a minor loss.
We need MORE partisan bickering in congress. When they stab eachother, its one less politician to worry about.
Interesting how after 5 MILLIONS they said "hmmm got to do somthing for the CORPS...so lets establish a LAW that they dont have to pay more then 1/2 Milion"
I mean did you realy think they will do ANYTHING for the people IF it goes AGAINST the CORPS? NEVER do Repablican do anything UNLESS it is at the same time benefitial to CORPS...or at very least benefitial to them BUT not of any negative to the CORPS.
God when will my fellow conservatives realise we have to PURGE the PARTY? Who cares if DEMS win the election if all we will get with REPS is jet another stab in the back. I DONT since at least i can be mad at "the other team"....get it? I tryed realy hard to belive in REPS and their media....but on the end of the day i had to recognize the patern it followed......the sad thing is i switched over from DEMS 10 years back....cause i recognizd they are hopless case of braindwashing mashine...and still are. Where am i going to go now? They can all go to hell....all I EVER learned is that tey will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to better their position and ANYTHING and EVERYHING they do they DONT do it for us...one just have to aske WHY and research/think it trough for a while and you find a hiden agenda. Those two parties have LONG stoped giving a damn about their party idiology nad have GLOBAL aganda nowdays....they will screw all america IF they see it standing in the way of their GLOBAL goals. When will america wake up...they are seting us up ...little by little....telling us its all for our own good...till they have all the mechanics in place and we find ourself unable to do anything about it. People need to learn form history. This LAW is no diferent particulary coming from REPS. I mean particulary since i am conservative it always baged me that on EVERY thing online the REPS vote AGAINST everything they preach in every other area of life and you will NEVER hear it mantion on radio shows, and if they (while not outhright lieng) missrepresent every internet LAW wrong and make it look just the oposite of what it is UNLESS the very law benefits CORPS....WHY? That ALWAYS made my blood boil. At least i know what to expect form LIBS, but it obvius that for REPS the CORPS come first and formost. We laugh at LIBS for being sheep, jet most conservatives are JUST that TOO. THERE, now go ahead and rate me down to oblivion for telling how it is.
This is not a bill for consumers. This is a bill designed to limit corporate liability and leave consumers high and dry.
Congress does not care about people because no person can legally match the campaign donations of a corporate super-PAC.
We need MORE partisan bickering in congress. When they stab eachother, its one less politician to worry about.
You mean the same thing when the republicans controlled congress for years and a "Democrat" bill would be stalled indefinitely? Someones been listening to way too much Rush lol.
actually not, it is a corporation protection bill with a PR spin in its title... and it will pass with flying colors because both parties are wholly owned and controlled by the corporations that this bill serves to protect
Hence "and the one before that"?
but, if this law goes through, and they get fined, it means they clearly did something wrong, which would mean that we wouldn't be tied up in a class action forever, and could get the process done faster, if not proving that they insufficiently secured their systems, not reporting it fast enough or right would be a clear violation, and could be lumped into the lawsuits to get crap done faster, unless there is a no sue clause.
This sadly is nothing compared however to large corporations it may even be better to take the risk of having to pay the fine. This is why I cannot support limited liability when it comes to corporations, if corporations are indeed "people" then they should receive the same punishments if they are capable of getting the same rights. I am tired of corporations being above the law or at best pathetic punishments when they willfully break them.
It will stall because of the traitor Harry Reid who is Obama's bitch.