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Congress Proposes Data Breach Disclosure Bill
segphault writes "A new data breach disclosure bill proposed by Senator Sensenbrenner (the same politician that sponsored the infamous Real ID Act) requires companies to inform federal law enforcement agencies if a database containing information on more than 10,000 citizens is infiltrated by hackers. The punishments for failing to disclose information about data breaches to federal law enforcement agents under this new bill include jail time and massive fines. Although this bill requires disclosure to the government, it does not require companies to inform the victims of data theft. Furthermore, it allows federal law enforcement agencies to prevent companies from voluntarily disclosing information about breaches to the public, even if the companies are required to do so by state laws. This law could potentially allow companies to circumvent and undermine state laws designed to protect consumers from identity theft."
Um, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner is not actually a senator, but a congressman. http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/
Twice as crazy as I would be if I was half as crazy as I am.
Sensenbrenner is a member of the House, not the Senate.
Data security bills have been kicking around for months now, and House Judiciary is actually running behind the pack. Senate Commerce moved a Smith bill (S. 1408). Senate Judiciary moved bills authored by Chairman Specter (S. 1789) and Senator Sessions (S. 1326). Representative Sterns introduced a bill, H.R. 4127, which was referred jointly to House Energy & Commerce and House Judiciary. Commerce voted it out, but Sensenbrenner has been sitting on it while working on his own bill.
Every one of the above-mentioned proposals is better than the Sensenbrenner bill. While the Sessions draft is almost as bad, it's likely to take a back seat to the Specter bill. Most importantly, all the alternative bills have process. They've had hearings. They've had markups. They've been analyzed by industry, DoJ, privacy advocates and everyone else conceivable. They may actually be going places. The Sensenbrenner bill is not. It looks more like a cheap stunt to get some media, and ensure some say in the final product, than a serious attempt to legislate.