“This legislation will protect American consumers and the 26.5 million veterans who were impacted by the data breach earlier this week,” said Congressman Renzi.  “This is just the most recent high-profile crack in financial security data protections and millions have been exposed to account fraud and identity theft. This measure will help safeguard our veterans and their financial data in the future.”

Summary of H.R. 3997:

Investigation: Businesses are required to immediately investigate any information reasonably indicating that a data security breach may have occurred.

Notification: If the potential breach of data security may result in harm or inconvenience to any consumer, then the business is required to notify law enforcement, appropriate regulator(s), and other businesses in the transaction chain.  If the potential breach may result in financial fraud against consumers causing harm or inconvenience, then the consumers must be notified through a uniform mailing.

Financial Fraud Mitigation: Consumer notification involving sensitive financial identity information must include an offer of free credit-file monitoring for the consumer.

Freeze:  Allows consumers who are victims of identity theft the opportunity to freeze their credit files free of charge.

Uniformity: The legislation extends data protection standards across all business sectors.