New Arizona Law Aims To Protect Data Breach Victims

By Austin Westfall
Published: Friday, April 13, 2018 - 7:01pm
Updated: Friday, April 13, 2018 - 7:03pm
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Officials say it's likely that everyone in the state has either been a victim of a data breach or knows someone who is.

A new law aims to protect those people.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed a bill beefing up laws that protect and notify data breach victims. The bill bolsters protections by expanding the definition of protected personal information. 

“A company who found out that there could be a breach wouldn't have to notify consumers until an investigation was complete, and we were finding that sometimes consumers wouldn't find out for six months to a year after this happened, so by that time, the damage was already done," said Mia Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General. 

A notification must now be sent within 45 days after a company has found that its data was breached.

Garcia said breaches are a growing problem in the U.S., and millions of Arizonans have had their information stolen.