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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger is pushing to ensure credit unions' best interests in a data security hearing before the House Small Business Committee this morning, detailing how credit unions have successfully minimized data breaches and why it's important that others do the same.

"A recent survey of NAFCU member credit unions found that respondents were alerted to potential breaches an average of 164 times in 2014, an increase from 2013," Berger says in his opening statement. "It is important to remember, when credit unions are alerted to breaches, they take action to respond to protect their members." The survey showed credit unions, on average, spent $136,000 on data security measures and $226,000 in costs associated with merchant data breaches.

The 11 a.m. Eastern hearing, "Small Business, Big Threat: Protecting Small Businesses from Cyber Attacks," is being streamed live, and NAFCU is encouraging credit unions to tune in.

Berger is testifying alongside representatives from Intel Corporation, the National Small Business Association and the National Cybersecurity Institute. This hearing is the first in a series the committee has planned to examine current data security laws and what can be done differently to ensure businesses shield themselves and consumers from future data breaches.

NAFCU continues to seek passage of a data security bill that would create a strong national standard of protection for retailers, recognize credit unions' compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and hold retailers accountable for breaches occurring on their end. Such a bill was introduced recently by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; NAFCU strongly supports the bill.

NAFCU is a member of the Payments Security Task Force, a diverse group of participants in the payments industry that is focused on driving a discussion on payments system security. NAFCU is also a member of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which work on infrastructure cybersecurity.