Jul. 27, 2018
By Rep. Steve Mentzer (R-Lititz)
With news breaking last week of a security breach at the Pennsylvania Department of Health and a previous breach at the Department of Human Services, the House has asked the Office of Attorney General to investigate. Since then, it has come to light that the personal information of nearly 13,000 personnel and inmates within the state Department of Corrections may have been compromised in recent weeks.
The attorney general has conducted several other investigations involving data breaches of Equifax, Uber, the TIO Networks, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Facebook and the Target Corporation.
In addition to the call for an investigation, the House passed two bills this session dealing with data security and informing the public of possible breaches.
House Bill 1846 would require notice within 45 days to Pennsylvania residents when there is a breach of security in plain language and must include the date of the breach and the toll-free numbers to credit reporting agencies.
House Bill 1847 would amend the Credit Reporting Agency Act to waive the current $10 fee to freeze credit reports and would provide consumers with three months of free credit monitoring following a data breach and three free credit reports for one calendar year after the breach.
In addition, the General Assembly has made credit card skimming a crime.
As more people are becoming aware, criminals use devices that steal personal and financial data by skimming the information from credit cards that are used at such places as automatic teller machines (ATMs) or self-pay gas pumps.
However, until Act 60 of 2018, possessing these devices was not illegal, even though they have no use other than for criminal, deceitful and deceptive purposes. Anyone convicted of using or possessing a scanning or skimming device now faces a third-degree felony for a first offense and a second-degree felony for subsequent offenses.
This new law, which takes effect in late August, aligns Pennsylvania with 30 other states that have enacted similar legislation.