Gov. Inslee Signs Data Breach Protection Law

A new, tougher, data breach protection law was signed Thursday by Gov. Inslee. It adds new protections for Washington consumers.

In the wake of a number of national and regional data breaches of computer systems by hackers, Attorney General Bob Ferguson pushed legislators to pass a bill strengthening the state's data breach notification law.

Under the new law, companies MUST notify the public within 45 days of any strongly suspected or confirmed data breaches involving private client information or sensitive data. Most recently Premera Blue Cross and it's affiliates experienced a data breach that likely occurred last year, the company suspected it several months ago, but the news was not released until April.

The Attorney General must also be notified within 45 days of such breaches. It also requires companies to provide basic information they can use to help secure or recover potentially stolen information or identities.

The new law goes into effect immediately.

Many of the recent data breaches reported regionally and nationally have not been brought to the public's attention until several months have passed, and some of the breaches occurred months before they were made public.