Dive Brief:
- Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) urged Congress to bring the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act to the floor for a vote, citing the breach at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield that affected 10 million people.
- The breach, announced Aug. 5, potentially accessed addresses, birthdates, claims information, financial information, phone numbers, social security numbers and member identification numbers. However, Excellus said there was no evidence that data were stolen from their systems or the compromised data was used for fraudulent purposes.
- The attack, which occurred in Dec. 2013, is listed as one of the top 20 worst healthcare organization breaches, according to HHS' breach list.
Dive Insight:
Schumer said in a statement, "The fact that this data breach was not discovered for 19 months just goes to show how much work we have to do when it comes to protecting our personal information." He added, "I am urging my colleagues in Congress to strengthen consumer cyber protections and require companies to notify their customers if there has been a breach of their personal information in a timely manner so they can take action to ensure they are not the victim of identity theft."
According to The Hill, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), sponsor of the bill, said the Senate probably won't vote on the legislation until next month.