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Retirement Planning > Social Security

Senate Security Breach Bill Could Affect Insurers

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Members of the Senate Banking Committee have added their 2 cents to efforts to pass a consumer information data security bill.[@@

Sens. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, the head of the Senate Banking financial institutions subcommittee, and Thomas Carper, D-Del., have introduced S. 3568, a bill that would regulate company responses to data breaches.

Several House and Senate committees are jockeying for jurisdiction over the issue, suggesting that congressional interest remains strong.

S. 3568 would require companies to notify consumers about data breaches posing a risk of “substantial harm or inconvenience,” including identity theft.

S. 3568, which is modeled after privacy provisions in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act that apply to all financial institutions, would apply to all entities that handle sensitive consumer data.

“Though current law requires financial institutions to protect the security and confidentiality of customer information, we have to expand this reach,” Bennett says. “Many of the recent breaches in data security have occurred outside financial institutions’ networks.”

The American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, has welcomed the introduction of S. 3568.

“We’re glad the Banking Committee will be studying the issue,” says Jack Dolan, an ACLI vice president. “We believe this committee is the right place for the Senate to be using to study data security issues.”

Several other data security bills are under consideration in Congress.

One, S. 1789, introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the most senior Democrat on the committee, would impose broad notification requirements. To win an exemption, companies would have to file a report with the U.S. Secret Service showing that a breach poses “no significant risk of harm” to consumers.

In the House, 2 committees are trying to wed 2 separate bills and send them to the House floor by July 28, when Congress hopes to leave for the summer recess.


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