National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) President and CEO Dan Berger issued the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s announcement of his Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) in conjunction with the 2017 budget.
“We applaud President Obama’s continued commitment to the nation’s growing cybersecurity dangers, which affect our economy and consumers,” said Berger. “A year after I attended the President’s White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University, I appreciate the president’s continued focus on cybersecurity and, by extension, data security.”
Last year, the “Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act” (CISA), a NAFCU-supported bill that would encourage faster sharing of cyber-threat information among the business and government sectors, was signed into law by President Obama as part of the year-end omnibus package.
“But more needs to be done. This year, another major positive step forward would be for Congress to pass a national standard for protection of consumer information such as The Data Security Act of 2015.”
The Data Security Act of 2015, H.R. 2205, is bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) and John Carney (D-DE), which would hold retailers responsible for implementing security measures to protect consumer data. S. 961, is the companion bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), in the Senate.
NAFCU was the first financial trade association in the wake of the massive Target breach to call for a national data security standard that would hold retailers accountable for data breaches that occur on their end and which hurt consumers and their financial institutions.