New York governor signs two new laws to strengthen cybersecurity and consumer privacy

According to Security Magazine, New York Governor Cuomo signed the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (SHIELD) Act, which imposes stronger obligations on businesses handling private data to provide proper notification to affected consumers when there is a security breach, as well as a new legislation requiring consumer credit reporting agencies to offer identity theft prevention and mitigation services to consumers who have been affected by a security breach of the agency’s system. According to Bloomberg, these bills followed Equifax’s July settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The company agreed to pay up to $700 million to resolve state and federal investigations into a 2017 hack in which the sensitive information of more than 140 million people was compromised.