“Today’s headlines underscore the absolute importance of moving forward to strengthen our cybersecurity infrastructure by creating a concrete timeline for notification standards that should be a mandatory right for all consumers,” Daines said.
Daines made the remarks at the congressional Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on consumer data breach solutions, after hackers stole customer data from the US’ second largest health insurance provider Athnem Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Hackers gained unauthorized access to one of Anthem’s IT systems last week, and obtained personal information relating to consumers and Anthem employees covered under Anthem’s healthcare policies, the company said on Thursday.
The stolen information includes names, birthdays, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses, and employment information. No credit card information was taken, nor is there evidence that medical information like claims, test results, or diagnostic codes were targeted or obtained, according the company.
Up to 80 million US citizens could be impacted by the cyberattack.
In January, US President Barack Obama announced a new cyber-security legislative proposal that encouraged private companies to share cyber threat information with government agencies to protect them from hacker attacks.
The proposal came in the wake of a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, which resulted in the leak of Sony employees’ personal data last year.
