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Senators propose hearings on Target data breach

January 20, 2014 by Terry Dooley — SVP & CIO, ITS, Inc

Following the recent Target data breach, three U.S. Senators are pushing lawmakers to assemble to discuss the future of cyber security standards for businesses and financial service providers.

Senators Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote a letter requesting that the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hold a congressional hearing on the Target breach "as soon as reasonably possible."

The point of the hearings would be to examine whether Congress feels the need to pass tighter cyber security rules, and to determine if there are better tools available to fight similar cyber security crimes in the future.

"We believe it would be valuable for the committee to examine whether market participants are taking all appropriate actions to safeguard consumer data and protect against fraud, identity theft, and other harmful consequences, and whether we need stronger industry-wide cyber security standards," the letter said.

EMV is also on the senators' radar, as they indicated that the meeting would also serve to address the value of chip-based payment cards to improve credit and debit card transactional security.

A recent American Banker online poll found that 48 percent of banks plan to reissue credit cards affected by the Target breach, saying that it is "the best way to protect affected accounts from fraud." Just 10 percent of banks deemed a widespread reissuance too costly in terms of time and money, as well as too inconvenient to carry out.

With the extensive reach of this data breach, there will no doubt be continued fallout in the coming months, as well as additional talk of new regulation to guide stakeholders in their efforts to prevent it from happening again.

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