Coming on the heels of the revelation this week from Equifax that an additional 2.4 million Americans were impacted by the 2017 data security breach, a House financial institutions subcommittee Wednesday holds another hearing on legislation to address data security issues.
In total, more than 145 million Americans have been affected by the Equifax data breach, which remains the largest data breach of personal information in history. The additional consumers affected had their names and partial driver’s license numbers stolen. The thieves were unable to obtain the state where the license was issued, or the issue and expiration dates.
Late last summer, Equifax revealed that the Social Security numbers of 143 million Americans were compromised.
Wednesday’s hearing (set for 2 p.m.) is scheduled to look at legislative proposals to reform the current data security and breach notification regulatory regime. It follows a hearing the subcommittee held Feb. 14, looking at data security and breach notification in general.
At that hearing, financial institution and data security experts witnesses told lawmakers that a national data security standard and strong notification requirements when a data breach occurs were their top recommendations. One witness calling for a national standard said it would “address what is truly a national issue.”
However, lawmakers were also cautioned to “do no harm” as they proceed to legislation.