House lawmakers agreed Thursday on the need for...
House lawmakers agreed Thursday on the need for a federal law to set baseline standards for data breach notification, during a House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing. Subcommittee Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said not even Congress is immune…
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from leaks that expose their passwords and data, and steps should be taken to keep private data secure. Schakowsky said in her opening statement that “Anonymous has hacked into 1,800 email accounts of members of Congress and their staff.” On Wednesday evening the hacktivist group Anonymous posted more than 2,000 email addresses and passwords of House and Senate staffers with a warning for lawmakers to curb National Security Agency spying practices (http://bit.ly/17mF3BF). The link was tweeted by @OpLastResort and said: “We mean it. This is a pivotal moment for America, and we will not tolerate failure. #Congress #Senate #FISA #PRISM.” Schakowsky said data breaches are “clearly a major issue which the private sector has not done enough to address.” She suggested any federal data breach laws provide a strong baseline for data breach notification requirements but “should not weaken strong state laws.” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, also endorsed a federal “baseline” bill to govern data breach notification rules. “It would appear to be obvious that we need a federal bill and not a patchwork of state bills,” he said. “This is an issue that we all have general agreement on ... it is not a partisan issue,” said Barton. House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said “after-the-fact breach notification is only half of what is needed. The private sector needs to take steps to proactively secure private information.”