Calls For Federal Breach Notification Law Continue After Yahoo Data Breach

Data breach prevention and response are again at the forefront of the public consciousness with the recent news of a massive data breach by Yahoo. The call for federal breach notification legislation was revived by the FTC on September 27, 2016, five days after the Yahoo breach was announced. During testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the FTC reiterated "its longstanding, bipartisan call for federal legislation that would (1) strengthen its existing data security authority and (2) require companies, in appropriate circumstances, to provide notification to consumers when there is a security breach." Just twelve days prior, John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice, called for a unified federal breach notification law, referring to the existing spread of 47 state laws as "ridiculous."