Retailers need real data security to combat wave of cyberattacks

With data breaches continuing to happen left and right, we need a bill that would establish a national data security standard. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Reps. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and John Carney’s (D-Del.) legislation, the House Data Security Act of 2015, would do. H.R. 2205 would require all entities that deal with consumers’ personal information to develop and maintain an effective information security program tailored to the complexity and scope of its operations and the sensitivity of its data.

{mosads}It is simple: Those who accept card payments need to be held to the same standard as those who issue cards for payment. This is not an attempt to crush small business, as Mr. French portends (“Bank-style rules for small business are wrong approach to data security,” June 1). Neugebauer and Carney’s bill will actually protect consumers.

Merchants have little incentive to adopt stronger security measures on their own because the cost of their data breaches are passed on to credit unions and banks. Holding these retailers accountable is not only good logic, it is sound policy. 

From Jim Nussle, president and CEO, Credit Union National Association, Washington, D.C.

Pataki doesn’t have a chance

Pataki’s self-promotion is really motivated by a desire to drum up both business for his consulting firm and consideration for a Cabinet or other position in any future Republican administration. Pataki wrote his own political obituary long ago. Except in his mind, Pataki is essentially irrelevant in politics today.

It is time he set his sights on something more realistic. Perhaps he should consider running against Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer in 2016.

From Larry Penner, Great Neck, N.Y.

EPA water rule deserves praise

From great blue herons to river otters to brook trout, countless wildlife depend on healthy wetlands, small streams and creeks.

We should celebrate the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Water Rule that restores broad protections for our most vulnerable waters across the country (“President Obama asserts
power over small waterways,” May 27).

This is a monumental step forward: Small waters that have been in legal limbo and at increased risk of pollution, degradation and destruction for more than a decade are once again protected.

Like so many issues in Washington these days, the Clean Water Rule has generated some controversy in the halls of Congress. But many of the wild claims about the rule simply aren’t true. The rule preserves, and in some cases enhances, longstanding exemptions for farmers, ranchers and forest stewards.

Help keep these clean water safeguards in place: Call your members of Congress or send them an email urging support for clean water, protected wetlands and crystal-clear streams.

From Ben Spector, Washington, D.C.