Lawmakers Say Sony Data Breach Underscores Need For Legislation

Members of Congress say they are very worried about news that someone hacked the accounts of 77 million Sony PlayStation users and say the issue shows Congress needs to do something more about cybersecurity.

"I am deeply troubled by this latest data breach. It reinforces my long-held belief that much more needs to be done to protect sensitive consumer information," said Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. "Most importantly, Americans should be quickly informed when their personal information has been hacked, especially in instances like this where there is an obvious potential for large scale identity theft." Rep Bono Mack said she will be introducing legislation, possibly as soon as next week, that would provide consumers with additional safeguards to protect against such data breaches.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), who also sits on the House Commerce Committee, said he plans to reintroduce a data breach bill he offered before. The bill, which passed the House, would have required for-profit entities that hold personal information about consumers to adequately secure the data and notify the Federal Trade Commission and the affected consumers when a breach occurs. "Sony touts its PlayStation platform's real-time and networking capabilities to consumers," Rep Rush said. "The laws of this country should call, similarly, for consumers to be notified in as close to real-time as possible--not according to Sony time--whenever their sensitive information falls into the hands of intruders, hackers, thieves and information resellers."