Retailers, banks unite to press Congress for cyber bill

A joint venture between the retail and financial industries pressed Congress on Thursday to pass legislation enabling industry to exchange cyber threat information with the government.

“We must all unite and pass comprehensive legislation that will allow us to share information to better combat cyber criminals,” said the Merchant Financial Cyber Partnership, in a letter to congressional leaders.

{mosads}The partnership was formed eight months ago following a number of high-profile data breaches that exposed tens of millions of consumers’ information.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) are two of the major industry groups behind it.  

The groups’ main goal is to improve the security of payment systems, which hackers have infiltrated to steal hundreds of millions of consumers’ payment card information this past year.

“It is imperative that our two industries continue to learn from each other in this fight and work together in order to maintain the trust of our customers and collaboratively improve overall security,” said Sandy Kennedy, who co-chairs the partnership and heads (RILA).

The group said Thursday it would be developing cybersecurity recommendations for companies to follow.

The guidelines will focus on “technologies that minimize the value of payments information if it is stolen, lost or breached.”

The finance and retail industries have occasionally been at odds this past year over who should foot the bill following a data breach.

Major U.S. banks are suing Target after a hack at the company exposed 40 million customers’ payment card information.

The banks are alleging they suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages from reissuing credit cards and reimbursing fraudulent charges. Target has countered the third-party hackers, not Target, caused the harm. A court this week denied the retail giant’s attempt to have the suit dismissed.

Industry groups are hoping their joint venture can bridge some of those gaps.

“This partnership has formed key links between our industries and we are hopeful these relationships will improve the entire payment system,” said FSR head Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor.  

But the collaboration can only do so much, the group said. Congress must assist with a bill to give legal protection to companies wishing to exchange cyber threat information with the government.

The private sector is virtually unified in its belief that legislation is needed to better protect the nation’s infrastructure.

“This is critical, as attackers become more sophisticated, we must have the ability to learn from each other to better protect consumers,” the partnership said in its letter to congressional leaders.