Matthew Sturdevant reports:
In the wake of several major data breaches in recent years at The Home Depot, Target and Anthem, Connecticut’s legislature has passed a bill that would provide greater consumer protections.
One of the key provisions is at least one-year of identity-theft protection for any customer that is a victim of a data breach that compromises confidential information, such as a Social Security number and a person’s name.
Senate Bill 949 has been approved by the Senate and the House and awaits approval by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who plans to sign it, according to a spokesman for Malloy.
Read more on Hartford Courant.
I value the Connecticut Legislature’s efforts to beef up their state law but am concerned that the ID protection provision doesn’t guarantee that the coverage you’re offered will protect the type of data you lost. Many corporations will seek to offer skimpy coverage like Target and Home Depot did. I think if you lose my SSN, you should monitor for same wherever it can be fraudulently used. That includes new avenues of theft like fake unemployment insurance claims for example. Just monitoring for new credit accounts is not adequate in my view.