Hackers compromised the personal information of millions of American Airlines, Door Dash, Uber and U-Haul customers last month — and many of them remain clueless, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.
The New York Democrat called on the feds to step up oversight and investigation into the data breaches under the Cyber Incident Reporting Act, which was signed into law in March.
“In roughly the last thirty days, vital and personal information has been hacked at many major US companies, compromising people’s privacy. Yet, if you ask most people about these hacks they don’t even know they occurred and the feds are saying very little,” Schumer said at a Midtown press conference.
More than 53 million Americans were impacted by data breaches in the first half of 2022 alone, according to Statistica.
Schumer, 71, said the bill gave the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department more oversight on hacking incidents — and called on them to publicly disclose additional information on the breaches and do more to help victims.
“The feds have a law on the books to glean more information on major hacks, so the message today is: give consumers the details and investigate who is hacking,” Schumer said.
“If a company is not doing right by their customers’ very personal information, then hold them to account as well. That is the two-pronged message today.”
The bill required many industries to immediately report hacks and ransomware payments to the feds. But the senator cited reports that note a lack of government-wide information about the incidents, including a Sept. 8 cyberattack on Suffolk County that paralyzed the 911 system.
“The feds should detail who exactly hacked Suffolk, what info they got and detail what tools we give Long Island so this doesn’t happen again.
“I just secured robust federal dollars to help prevent this exact kind of thing on behalf of our local governments,” Schumer said, referencing the $1 billion that was allocated to the state in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
