The Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) has applauded the introduction of H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, a bipartisan measure by Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) Congressman John Carney (D-DE) that will help prevent data breaches by enacting strong new protections for sensitive financial information and establish uniform guidelines to ensure customers receive timely notification when a breach happens.
“Ensuring that every industry is required to follow clear rules to safeguard data is the best way to help protect consumers,” said FSR President and CEO Tim Pawlenty. “This measure, with its strong, but flexible, data security standards and common-sense consumer notification requirements, can help stop the parade of retailer data breaches.”
In addition to establishing a robust but scalable and non-prescriptive data security standards that firms of any size can follow, H.R. 2205 lays out clear steps businesses must take in the event of a breach that compromises financial information and puts consumers at risk. The FSR believes the steps guarantee that consumers are alerted to the incident and know what steps they can take to protect themselves. This is done by creating a uniform set of national data security and breach notification requirements, while also recognizing that some industries, like financial services and healthcare, already comply with rigorous data security regulations.