Banks forced to issue hacking reports

data loss which compromises their customer base, reports Backup Technology.

Most firms are not currently required to tell their customers when they discover an Internet security breach or lose a laptop containing customer data, says The Telegraph.

But in a speech to the British Bankers' Association, Viviane Reding, VP of the EC, warned that new laws would mean all businesses will be forced to come clean about data security problems.

Banks, especially, are a major target for cyber criminals, but little is known about the extent of the problem because financial security breaches are typically not publicised. In a rare admission last week, Citibank said hackers had stolen data from 360 000 of its American customers.

According to the International Business Times, since then a spokesman for the British Bankers' Association commented, “the UK's banks follow the highest standards of customer protection in their data management”, going on to suggest that it was “unlikely that such a step [the new laws] would affect the current practices of the UK's banks”.

The EC is expected to make its formal proposals to implement the new laws later this year.