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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger will reiterate the association's key data security principles and present how credit unions have successfully minimized data breaches during testimony before the House Small Business Committee next week.

Berger will share the credit union perspective while testifying alongside witnesses from Intel Corporation and National Small Business Association.

The April 22 hearing, "Small Business, Big Threat: Protecting Small Businesses from Cyber Attacks," is the first in a series of hearings 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. In particular, the association has advocated for legislation that will ensure:

• breached entities be held accountable for costs resulting from their negligence;
• consumers be notified of breaches and made aware of retailers' data security policies;
• account servicers be notified; and
• retailers be held to account for violating prohibitions on data retention.

Berger will also note findings of a NAFCU Economic & CU Monitor survey showing credit unions spent, on average, $226,000 and 1,600 hours last year on debit and credit card fraud issues arising from retailer data breaches.

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.