A bipartisan bill that would let victims of identity theft seek restitution for money and time they spent repairing their credit history was introduced on Oct. 16 in the Senate. Called the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007, the bill would also expand the jurisdiction of federal computer fraud statutes to cover small businesses and corporations, and it would eliminate the requirement that the loss resulting from damage to a victim’s computer must exceed $5,000. Under this bill, violations resulting in less than $5,000 damage would be criminalized as misdemeanors. For a more complete list of provisions read the article here . While I believe this is a good idea, my fear is that the cost of fines and penalties paid out to victims will simply be passed along to the consumer. As with other pieces of legislation, we’ll just have to wait and see what the final bill looks like, and then see how it’s used before drawing any conclusions.
Talking Up Sarbanes-Oxley?
Have you ever seen a situation where a group of people want so badly for something to be true that they make every effort to make it true by talking about it as much as possible in hopes that it will become true? This tactic is commonly used by politicians and the news media to convince people that something is true (like a strong or weak economy), even though it may not actually be true — yet. Well, I've had suspicions for the past year or so that this was happening with Sarbanes-Oxley, specifically the impact that it has had on the incidence of fraud.
Analysis and Commentary, Legislation
Trickle Down Economics
We saw it in the TJX breach; a credit union sending a bill for over $500,000 to cover the cost of notifying and mailing new cards to their customers. Now California is wants to make sure this is the law of the land. A bill titled the Consumer Data Protection Act, currently awaiting a signature by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, would do just that.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit retailers from storing and retaining data from the cards' magnetic strips. Also, California's notification requirements to consumers would be expanded to include details about the type of infomration lost, as well as the offending merchants names. Currently, 35 other states have passed breach notification laws, but none so far reaching as this.
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