Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the FTC and DOJ on Sunday to increase their efforts to protect consumers from cybersecurity breaches and investigate whoever is responsible for these attacks.
“I am calling on the Federal Trade Commission, first, to ensure that companies do everything they can to protect consumer data, and on the Department of Justice to fully investigate and go after the hackers that aim to harm Americans,” Schumer (D-NY) said in a news conference on Sunday.
Schumer cited some recent data breaches which occurred at private and public organizations, including a hack at Uber that the company disclosed in September. Following this disclosure, Uber said that the hackers accessed invoice-related data and company Slack messages.
According to Schumer’s office, American Airlines also confirmed a data breach last month. An unauthorized threat actor gained access to personal information of some customers and employees through phishing tactics, his office added.
On Sept. 8, Suffolk County, New York, was targeted by what looked to be a cyberattack as well, according to the county’s website. The county officials said that they “believe that the threat actors accessed and/or acquired certain personal information from one or more County agency servers. The County promptly hired multiple cybersecurity firms to conduct an examination to protect employees and residents as well as restore online services.”
Schumer said that his office has been in contact with Suffolk County officials and added that the county shut down all of its computer systems to keep government data protected.
“I know that the county’s been communicating with the federal authorities, as they’re supposed to, with federal law enforcement, and at this point is working to bring the computer system back online,” he said.
“We want to know who took (private data), what they did with it, and what consumers need to do to protect themselves, and the responsibility is with the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, and the Department of Justice, and we’re asking them to make – to redouble their efforts to answer all of these,” Schumer added.
Schumer stated that he wants a stricter requirement for companies reporting data breaches in order to keep as many consumers as possible updated on any potential danger.
“The law requires a company when it is hacked, or a government agency to notify the federal authorities, but not much more,” the senator said.