CUNA has called on President Obama and the federal government to take action on data breaches to protect U.S. consumers, businesses, credit unions and other financial institutions.
Jim Nussle, the new president/CEO of CUNA, sent a Sept. 30 letter to the White House, urging the president to establish a cybersecurity council that would be charged with developing a comprehensive and timely approach to the range of issues associated with cybersecurity attacks and data breaches.
Nussle, a former eight-term Iowa Republican congressman and director of the White House Office of the Management and Budget for President George W. Bush, noted in the letter that many of the most recent massive data breaches have taken place in systems operated by merchants, not financial institutions.
One important problem with current law is that, even when fault in a data breach lies with a merchant, credit unions and financial institutions are assigned many of the financial costs, CUNA said.
One job of the proposed cybersecurity council should be to help align liability with responsibility for these breaches, according to the letter.
Additionally, CUNA urged the Obama administration to support data security legislation to ensure that all participants in the payments system are held to comparable levels of federal data security requirements, parties responsible for the data breach cover costs of helping consumers and must inform consumers in a timely manner.
The $38 million First Choice Federal Credit Union in New Castle, Pa., filed a class action lawsuit this month against Home Depot for ithe retailer's security breach.
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