Yesterday, in a speech at the Federal Trade Commission, President Obama urged the passage of the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act, which would set a national standard requiring companies that have been hacked and suffered data breaches to notify affected customers within thirty days of learning of the breach.  Presently, there is no federal standard although 48 states have varying laws that apply to notifications by companies suffering data breaches.  This was the first of a number of speeches involving cybersecurity that the President will be giving leading up to his State of the Union address in which he is expected to make this topic a major part of his speech.  Although this seems like a good first step toward greater cybersecurity, some consumer advocates are concerned that a new federal standard may not be as strong as that provided by some states and that the federal law could preempt these more protective state laws.

TIPS

Cybersecurity has got to be made a greater priority by both business and government, however, regardless of what is done in this regard by private industry and the government, it is important to remember that if you are looking for a helping hand, the best place to find it is at the end of your own arm.  We cannot solely rely on corporations and government to protect our privacy and security.  We all must do the best we can to protect ourselves from identity theft and maintain our privacy as best we can.  You can find many specific tips on how to do this in my book “Identity Theft Alert” which can be ordered from Amazon by clicking on the link on the right hand side of the page.