WASHINGTON—NAFCU and CUNA have joined with two banking industry trade groups in urging Congress to support an amendment to HR 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. Offered by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the amendment contains the text of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S. 754), which was recently approved on a near-unanimous and bipartisan basis by the Select Committee on Intelligence.
“We urge you and your colleagues to adopt this amendment as it will increase the nation’s ability to defend against cyber-attacks by encouraging businesses and the government to share cyber-threat information more quickly and efficiently between the two sectors,” the four groups said in the letter.
The letter also urges the Senate to expedite consideration of the Data Security Act of 2015 (S. 961), introduced by Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), which would ensure that all entities that handle sensitive financial and personal information have common-sense safeguards and processes in place to protect data and provide notice to consumers in the event of a breach.
“Despite the alarming rise in the number and sophistication of cyber-threats, a federal standard to protect consumer data across the payment system currently does not exist,” the letter reads. “With the recent data security breaches at major retailers and others that have put millions of consumers at risk, the need to pass legislation to establish such a standard could not be more evident.”
Joining NAFCU and CUNA in the letter were the Consumer Bankers Association of America and the Independent Community Bankers of America.