Senators introduce guidelines bill for data security breaches

Sens Pat Toomey (R-PA), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced the Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2012 (S.3333), a bill aimed at setting national standards for how companies inform individuals of a breach of security related to personal information.

The bill directs corporations, trusts, cooperatives and similar entities that retain personal information to inform the owners of that information of a breach as quickly as possible. The breached entities have to inform the owners of the breached information on the date it was accessed, the information that was stolen and how to contact the breached entity for more information. The notification can be by telephone, email or on paper.