A House committee this week unanimously approved a data security law that would establish federal standards for protecting personal information and would supersede state laws. The Data Accountability and Trust Act, (HR 4127), is one of a spate of bills introduced last year in the wake of publicity about the theft or loss of data that could lead to identity theft. The incidents came to light as a result of state laws requiring consumer notification of security breaches and spurred a consumer demand for tighter regulation. . Data brokers and other companies subject to multiple state laws also have called for a single federal law. The DATA Act is one of the first bills to move out of committee. It was approved Wednesday by a 41 to 0 vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish security requirements for interstate businesses holding personal information in an electronic form. Requirements include creating security policies, naming a point person for information security and the use of state-of-the-art security practices. The link for this article located at Government Computer News is no longer available. . A congressional panel has approved legislation to establish national guidelines for data protection, tackling concerns related to consumer safety.. Data Security Bill, Consumer Rights, Information Protection, Federal Legislation. . Brittany Day
Federal agencies have been put on notice that National Institute of Standards and Technology officials plan to phase out a widely used cryptographic hash function known as SHA-1 in favor of larger and stronger hash functions such as SHA-256 and SHA-512. . The change will affect many federal cryptographic functions that incorporate hashes, particularly digital signatures, said William Burr, manager of NIST's security technology group, which advises federal agencies on electronic security standards. "There's really no emergency here," Burr said. "But you should be planning how you're going to transition — whether you're a vendor or a user — so that you can do better cryptography by the next decade." The link for this article located at FCW is no longer available. . The change will affect many federal cryptographic functions that incorporate hashes, particularly di. federal, agencies, notice, national, institute, standards, technology, officia. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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