WASHINGTON (5/4/15, UPDATED 1:45 p.m. ET)--Building on the success credit union advocates are having in getting data breach legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress, today CUNA launches a new call to action to garner support for the recently introduced House Data Security Act of 2015 (H.R. 2205).

CUNA strongly backs the broad House bill that would establish a national data security standard.

“Credit unions work hard to protect their members’ data security. They block card usage and issue cards with new numbers quickly after breaches to prevent fraud. When fraud occurs they work with members to remove the fraudulent charges and help members keep their hard-earned money,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “When the merchants cause a data breach, they just pass along many of the costs of their poor security to credit unions.”

The House bill, introduced by Reps. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and John Carney (D-Del.), is a companion to Senate data breach legislation (S. 961), which was introduced by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

CUNA Chief Political Officer Richard Gose praised strong credit union engagement on the issue of data breaches, particularly in recent months, and urged the credit union system to remain involved going forward and support CUNA’s Action Alert.

“We are very fortunate that over 350,000 credit union members have been engaged with this issue since the beginning of the year, and we believe this has had a significant impact in getting these bills introduced,” he said. 

H.R. 2205 would require all entities that deal with consumers’ personal information to develop and maintain an effective information security program tailored to the complexity and scope of its operations and the sensitivity of its data.

Credit union stakeholders can take action by:

• Contacting their members of Congress by visiting StoptheDataBreaches.com and clicking the Take Action link;
   
• Using the numerous tools and resources contained in CUNA’s Data Breach Toolkit;
   
• Engage with social media using the hashtag #StoptheDataBreaches to tweet elected officials. CUNA’s @CUNA and @CUNAAdvocacy twitter accounts and CUNA Advocacy Facebook page will be used to relay the latest information; and
   
• Encouraging credit unions to sign up for CUNA’s Member Activation Program.