NY Assembly Bill Looks to Protect Identity Data

by Rebecca Lewis | 11/14/2014 | 3:30pm

NY Assembly Bill Looks to Protect Identity Data

NY State Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz introduced a bill in September to boost security for personal information.

In light of recent security breaches at major stores like Target and Home Depot, NY Assemblyman Dinowitz is pushing a bill to help protect businesses and their consumers.

Stores are still in charge of their specific security. But Dinowitz's bill spells out a number of baseline requirements for businesses to follow. These include assigning staff members to oversee security programs and preventing ex-employees from accessing sensitive data. Ted Potrikus, president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State, said stores constantly need to adapt their security.

"It's only as current as the systems that we have. And the systems that we have, in our view, are state of the art, until they aren't," Potrikus said at a hearing about the bill on Friday.

Potrikus said the Retail Council is taking steps with other groups from across the country to improve security technology. Their biggest project is trying to implement a system that is used in the UK known as "Chip and PIN." In this system, every credit or debit card has a microchip and corresponding PIN number. Potrikus said this system has been shown to be more secure than simply providing a signature which is required in the U.S.

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