AG Josh Stein Announces Legislation to Strengthen Protections Against Identity Theft After Millions Affected By Data Breach

News Release,

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Attorney General Josh Stein was in Charlotte on Thursday to announce new legislation to strengthen protections against identity theft.

The bill will be introduced when legislature goes back into session.

Just this week, national news broke that millions of emails and passwords were exposed in a breach referred to as a collection number one.

The data could have come from more than 2,000 leaked databases and was posted to a hacking forum. This is the first major data breach of 2019.

Stein says more breaches are expected, but this legislation should help protect those affected.

Stein also released an annual report of data breaches in North Carolina in 2018. That report provides detailed information about the 1,057 data breaches that affected more than 1.9 million North Carolinians.

β€œThis number is way too high. North Carolina’s laws on this issue are strong – but they need to be even stronger,” Attorney General Stein said. “Rep. Jason Saine and I want to do everything we can to keep people’s personal information safe.”

β€œOver the last year, we have spent numerous hours working with citizen advocates – like AARP, the Attorney General’s Office, and the North Carolina business community, to ensure that this bill will create strong protections for North Carolina’s citizens’ data,” said Rep. Jason Saine. β€œWe are strongly committed to getting this right, and creating a strong framework for protecting our most personal information.”

For more information about the Act to Strengthen Identity Theft Protections, click here.

More information on data breaches in 2018:

  • Phishing scams made up 26 percent of all breaches in 2018, up nearly 11 percent since 2017 and 2,650 percent since 2015.
  • Accidental release and display breaches increased in 2018, after a steady decline since 2013.
  • The 474 hacking breaches reported in 2018 marked an 8 percent decline since 2017. Hacking breaches in 2018 were 1,960 percent higher than a decade ago.
  • In 2018, more than 1.9 North Carolinians were affected by databreaches, a 63 percent decrease from the 5.3 million North Carolinians affected by databreaches in 2017. In 2017, an estimated 5 million North Carolinians were affected by the Equifax breach, one of the most significant security breaches in American history.
  • More databreach notices were submitted in 2018 than in 2017. The 1,057 databreach notices submitted in 2018 were 3.4 percent higher than the number of notices submitted in 2017.

To learn how to protect yourself from identity theft, visit www.ncdoj.gov/identitytheft.