SEC: Financial orgs have 30 days to send data breach notifications

SEC: Financial orgs have 30 days to send data breach notifications

May 17, 2024 at 01:29PM

The SEC has adopted amendments to Regulation S-P requiring certain financial institutions to notify individuals of data breaches within 30 days. The changes encompass breach notification, security policies, safeguard expansion, and compliance documentation. The modifications aim to update the rule, originally established in 2000, to better protect customer financial data.

Certainly! After reviewing the meeting notes, I have generated the following clear takeaways:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently adopted amendments to Regulation S-P, impacting certain financial institutions. The amendments require these institutions to disclose data breach incidents to impacted individuals within 30 days of discovery.

Key changes include:

– Mandatory notification to affected individuals within 30 days of a data breach incident, providing detailed information on the breach, breached data, and protective measures taken. An exemption applies if the breach isn’t expected to cause substantial harm or inconvenience to the exposed individuals.
– Implementation and maintenance of written policies and procedures for an incident response program to detect, respond to, and recover from unauthorized access or use of customer information.
– Expansion of safeguards and disposal rules to cover all nonpublic personal information, including that received from other financial institutions.
– Documentation of compliance with safeguards and disposal rules, excluding funding portals.
– Alignment of annual privacy notice delivery with the FAST Act, exempting certain conditions.
– Extension of safeguards and disposal rules to also cover transfer agents registered with the SEC or other regulatory agencies.

This regulation update is aimed at enhancing the protection of individual financial information from data breaches and exposure to non-affiliated parties, acknowledging the substantial transformation in the nature, scale, and impact of data breaches in the last 24 years.

The amendments to Regulation S-P will take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, with larger organizations having a compliance date of 18 months and smaller entities having a compliance period of two years.

Additionally, the SEC introduced new rules in December requiring all public companies to disclose breaches that materially affect or are reasonably likely to materially affect business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition.

Gary Gensler, SEC Chair, emphasized the importance of these amendments for investor protection, stating, “The basic idea for covered firms is if you’ve got a breach, then you’ve got to notify. That’s good for investors.”

I hope this summary of the meeting notes is thoroughly informative. Let me know if you need any further assistance.

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