Attorney General Janet Reno today announced that the Clinton Administration, along with Senators John Kyl, Patrick Leahy, and Charles Grassley has introduced legislation dramatically increasing federal protections of data confidentiality.
Current law protects the confidentiality of financial information.
Today's legislation would protect all government data against access without permission, as well as criminalizing access by government employees who exceed their authority to gain access to government data. We have to ensure that the law keeps up with changing times. In addition to penetrating telephone networks to disrupt phone service and wiretap calls, many hackers attack government and private computers to steal valuable information. According to the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University, during the past four years, the number of reported intrusions on the Internet has increased 498 percent, and the number of computer sites affected has increased 702 percent. I'm encouraged that this bill is off to a bipartisan start, and I hope Congress will move quickly to enact it.