The White House says President Obama will call for new laws to ensure American companies inform their customers about consumer information being stolen in hack attacks, reports The New York Times.
The president will propose the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act during his speech at the Federal Trade Commission today.
If the proposal becomes law, the discovery of a breach would trigger a ’30-day shot clock’ requiring companies to disclose information. The law will also make it a crime to sell a person’s information overseas. The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, will be empowered to issue penalties to companies that fail to comply.
The news comes ahead of the President’s State of the Union address next week, and just two months after a major breach of Sony Pictures’ computer systems, where confidential emails, company information and employee data were leaked. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called that attack the most serious ever against U.S. interests.
➤ Obama to Call for Laws Covering Data Hacking and Student Privacy [The New York Times]
Featured image: Ralph Alswang/Wikipedia
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