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NAFCU continues to push data security principles to U.S. House committee leaders

WASHINGTON, DC (January 4, 2018) — National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler, in a letter today to Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, outlined credit unions’ guiding principles for Congress to keep in mind as it works on a legislative solution for data and cybersecurity standards. Walden is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Latta is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection.

NAFCU is a leading advocate for a national data security standard for all entities that collect and hold consumers’ personal and financial information.

NAFCU’s guiding principles for data security legislation, as outlined in Thaler’s letter, include:

requiring entities to be accountable for related costs of data breaches that occur on their end, especially if the breach is caused by that entity’s negligence;
requiring all entities that store consumer data to meet standards similar to those imposed on depository institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA);
requiring merchants to post their data security policies at the point of sale if they take sensitive financial data;
informing financial institutions of any compromised personally identifiable information when associated accounts are involved;
disclosing names of the companies and merchants whose data systems have been violated so consumers are aware of those that place their personal information at risk;
enforcing violations of existing agreements and law by those who retain payment card information electronically; and
having the evidentiary burden of proving a lack of fault rest with the negligent entity that incurred the data breach.

NAFCU previously joined with six other financial industry trades in submitting a joint letter to Walden and Latta calling for a strong national data security standard and breach notification requirements.

For full text of the letter, please click here.

About NAFCU

The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. For more information on NAFCU, go to www.nafcu.org or @NAFCU on Twitter.