2006 - The Year Of Communication
Posted by Peter Mucklestone
The Fifth National Conference on Ensuring Privacy and Security of Consumer Information, sponsored by the American Conference Institute, began Thursday morning at the Marriott East Side Hotel in New York. The conference is billed by its sponsor as the leading legal and regulatory forum for privacy professionals at financial institutions.
During the morning session representatives of the four federal bank regulatory bank agencies gave their take on data breach notifications since the release of the Interagency Guidelines Establishing Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information in the spring of 2005. The consensus of the regulators was that 2006 will be the "year of communication," where financial institutions and their regulators will need to work together to develop appropriate responses to the unauthorized release of customer information.
At the moment, financial institutions are reacting to data breaches with an abundance of caution. Robert E. Engebreth of the Office of Thrift Supervision stated that approximately 140 notifications had been made to the OTS since April 2005. Of this number, many were duplicative disclosures. The notifications involved a mixed bag of data security lapses from hacking to lost laptops. In roughly one-third of the instances there was no obligation to notify the OTS under the Interagency Guidelines, and in two-thirds of the instances the financial institution had already notified customers before contacting the OTS.
The conference continues through Friday.
