WASHINGTON—CUNA is calling on its grassroots network to help stop merchant data breaches.
The trade association is urging credit union employees, volunteers and members to contact their senators to express support for the Data Security Act of 2015 (S. 961).
S. 961 would strengthen merchant data security standards to be comparable with those of credit unions and mandate a federal notification requirement for merchants when breaches occur.
The bill also provides a floor for data security standards nationwide and also includes the important provision to exclude financial institutions from the requirements as they are already subject to rigorous standards under the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act. It was introduced April 15 by Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).
CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle called the bill the best attempt so far at legislation to stop merchant data breaches.
"Credit unions work hard to protect their members' data security," said Nussle in a statement. "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. When the merchants cause a data breach, they just pass along many of the costs of their poor security to credit unions."
CUNA research shows that credit unions have spent more than $90 million in the wake of the Target and Home Depot data breaches alone.