[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 10 (Thursday, January 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SECURITY BREACH

  (Mrs. MALONEY of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw the 
attention of my colleagues to a large-scale data breach that was 
announced just yesterday. A hacker was able to gain access to the 
database maintained by T.J. Maxx and others, and was able to obtain 
payment card information stored in the database. Millions of 
cardholders' records are now potentially compromised, all affecting all 
major payment card brands.
  Mr. Speaker, the situation is under investigation and we do not know 
all the facts yet, but we do know that this is not the only example, it 
is only the latest in a long series of breaches. The largest so far was 
CSSI, and this affected over 40 million cardholders in America. This 
breach that happened yesterday, or was announced yesterday, may even be 
larger.
  How many more breaches like this will the public tolerate before 
Congress acts to adopt national data security rules?

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