Print
This past week, S.961 - the Data Security Act 2015, was introduced in the United States Senate. In an effort to encourage both of Maine's Senators to join as sponsors of the legislation, your League issued an Action Alert urging Maine credit union officials at all levels to contact Senators Collins and King asking for their sponsorship.
In a communication to all Maine credit union CEOs, your League's President John Murphy outlined the importance of this legislation. "The issue of data breaches and their impact in Maine over the past year has been well-documented in previous presentations and communications by your League. From Target and Home Depot to localized breaches, such as Otto's Pizza and certain Dairy Queen locations in eastern Maine, data breaches at merchants are costing Maine's credit unions and our members millions of dollars, not to mention the untold inconvenience and concern over the threat of a breach. Your League estimates that in the past 12-18 months, Maine's credit unions have reissued nearly half a million cards as a result of merchant data breaches. In addition, the fraud associated with these breaches has also been significant. Our conservative estimates place the cost of reissuing cards and fraud to Maine's credit unions at more than $2.5 million, and that is just in the past year and a half. The bill that was introduced this week strengthens merchant standards to be comparable with those of credit unions and mandates a federal notification requirement for merchants when breaches occur."
The Call To Action Message is simple:
- Stop the Breaches and support S. 961
- Consider joining as a co-sponsor of this legislation
Communications to both Senator Collins and King may be sent via their email:
or through the special Stop the Data Breaches email template by clicking here.
For those wishing to communicate this message over the phone, Senator Collins' Washington D.C. office can be reached at 202.224.2523; and the direct line to Senator King's Washington D.C. office is 202.224.5344.
"In the past both of our Senators, Senator Collins and Senator King, have expressed concern over the cost and frequency of breaches. Earlier this year, Senator King noted the cost of data breaches to Maine’s credit unions in a speech on the Senate floor regarding data security and breaches. With this recently introduced legislation, now is the time to contact both Senator Collins and Senator King asking for them to join as a co-sponsor of this legislation," added Murphy.
Resources: