(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — California Senator Dianne Feinstein has reintroduced new legislation on the issues of data breaches and protection of individual privacy, according to reports by InternetNews.com.
On Tuesday, Senator Feinstein introduced a package of ‘first-day’ bills, comprised of Bills S.139, the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act and S.141, the Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act.
According to Bill S.139, federal agencies or businesses would have to immediately alert both the media and those individuals whose private data has been breached, with limited exemptions allowed in the case of law enforcement and national security.
Additionally, the US Secret Service must be contacted in the event that more than 10,000 individuals’ records are breached, there are more than one million entries in the breached database, or the federal government owns the breached database, involves national security or law enforcement.
Data breaches continue to rise with 656 reported breaches reported in 2008, accounting for a 47 percent increase over the previous year.
Nonprofit organization Identity Theft Resource Center recently released the results of a study that showed that 35 million data records were compromised last year in 656 admitted incidents, compared to the 446 data loss cases reported in 2007.
In compiling its reports, ITRC monitors press reports and statutory disclosures for five categories of data loss, including data lost in transit, accidental exposure, insider theft, subcontractors, and hacking.
Computer malware, hacking, and insider theft made up 29.6 percent of overall recorded breaches, while data losses due to human error accounted for 35.2 percent.
Electronic breaches outnumbered paper breaches by nearly four to one, reports ITRC. US government organization saw fewer breaches last year while the number of data breaches in the private sector increased.
In October, a data breach occurred at The University of Florida’s dental school, potentially affecting the private information of 333,000 people.
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