Breach, Data Security

Markey, Blumenthal pen letter to FTC over Home Depot breach

After Home Depot confirmed a data breach, Sen. Ed Markey, D.-Mass., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) questioned the retailer's security with Markey also highlighting a bill to protect consumer data that the two are pushing before the Senate.

In a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, the senators said that “given the unprecedented scope and extended duration” of the data breach, the retailer “may have failed to employ reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect sensitive personal information.”

If that is the case, then Home Depot “denied customers the protection that they rightly expect when a business collects such information,” which would open the door for the FTC to exert its authority.

In a separate statement, Markey said the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act “will help address the escalating threats to data security plaguing retailers and consumers.”

UPDATE: Five states - Connecticut, California, Illinois, Iowa and New York - will join forces to investigate the Home Depot breach, according to a report by Reuters.

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