|
Watchdog
Identifies
Multiple
Data
Security
Deficiencies
at
the
Consumer
Financial
Protection
Bureau
Washington
–
With
the
recent
data
breaches
at
the
Internal
Revenue
Service
(IRS)
and
Office
of
Personnel
Management
(OPM)
fresh
in
the
minds
of
Americans,
U.S.
Senator
Tim
Scott
(R-SC)
today
led
22
of
his
colleagues
in
questioning
the
security
of
financial
data
on
millions
of
Americans
that
the
Consumer
Financial
Protection
Bureau
(CFPB)
and
its
contractors
collect
and
store.
A
report
last
fall
by
the
government’s
watchdog,
the
Government
Accountability
Office
(GAO),
identified
multiple
weaknesses
in
the
CFPB’s
protection
of
consumer
data,
which
includes
hundreds
of
millions
of
credit
card
accounts,
home
mortgage
loan
information,
and
other
financial
records.
“While
[the
IRS
and
OPM]
investigations
remain
ongoing,
we
believe
that
now
is
a
critical
time
to
examine
the
measures
other
government
agencies
take
to
secure
personal
data
they
collect
on
Americans,”
the
Senators
wrote.
“Under
the
Dodd-Frank
Act,
the
CFPB
has
begun
accumulating
loan-level
data
‘covering
approximately
80%
of
the
credit
card
marketplace’—hundreds
of
millions
of
credit
card
accounts…We
are
gravely
concerned
by
the
CFPB's
inability
to
confirm
that
the
massive
amount
of
data
it
collects
and
stores
could
not
be
reverse-engineered
and
traced
back
to
one
of
our
constituents.”
The
CFPB
was
asked
to
provide
detailed
information
about
the
security
of
the
CFPB’s
IT
systems,
the
CFPB’s
plans
for
notifying
consumers
whose
data
may
be
stolen
in
an
IRS-
or
OPM-style
breach,
and
how
the
CFPB
ensures
data
security
at
third-party
vendors
it
uses
for
data
collection
and
storage.
Senator
Scott,
a
member
of
the
Senate
Banking
Committee,
which
has
jurisdiction
over
the
CFPB,
was
joined
by
Senator
Mike
Crapo
(R-Idaho)
and
21
other
Senators
including
Senators
Kelly
Ayotte
(R-NH),
Richard
Burr
(R-NC),
Shelley
Moore
Capito
(R-WV),
Bill
Cassidy
(R-LA),
Dan
Coats
(R-IN),
John
Cornyn
(R-TX),
Tom
Cotton
(R-AR),
Ted
Cruz
(R-TX),
Jeff
Flake
(R-AZ),
Orrin
Hatch
(R-UT),
Dean
Heller
(R-NV),
Jim
Inhofe
(R-OK),
Mitch
McConnell
(R-KY),
Jerry
Moran
(R-KS),
James
Risch
(R-ID),
Mike
Rounds
(R-SD),
Ben
Sasse
(R-NE),
Jeff
Sessions
(R-AL),
Dan
Sullivan
(R-AK),
John
Thune
(R-SD),
and
David
Vitter
(R-LA).
Click
here
to
read
the
full
letter.
|