Credit Union National Association (CUNA) officials are reaffirming advocacy of a national data security framework, maintaining data security and privacy must be a national security priority.
CUNA is continuing to work with a coalition of financial services industry members to enact legislation requiring strong data security standards, citing Identity Theft Resource Center data revealing over 1.5 billion records have been exposed and nearly 10,000 breaches reported since 2005. In 2018, 446.5 million records were exposed.
“America’s focus on national security must extend beyond strictly physical concerns like our border and our defense interests,” CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle said. “It is imperative that we protect our nation’s digital infrastructure from the ever-increasing cyber-attacks that create financial calamity, jeopardize Americans’ privacy, and monetarily bolster foreign bad actors.”
Nussle said the current patchwork of data security and privacy regulations creates gaps through which cybercriminals continue to exploit personal and financial data, noting if leadership is serious about protecting Americans, real solutions to data security and privacy must be a priority.
CUNA serves as the only national association advocating on behalf of all of the nation’s credit unions, which are owned by 115 million consumer members.