WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following several recent breaches of consumers’ personal data, the Chairmen of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Consumer Protection Subcommittee today are expanding their investigation into corporate data security practices beyond Target to now include three additional companies that were also recently victims of cybercrimes.

Senators John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, (D-W.V.), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, sent letters to White Lodging, Yahoo, and Michaels Companies Inc., requesting information from security personnel on the wide-scale cyber-attacks that have compromised an untold number of consumers across the country. Additionally, the committee has been in contact with representatives of Neiman Marcus, and was briefed on the company’s recent data breach. 

“We have been advocates for data security and breach notification legislation that would better protect consumers and improve corporate responsibility,” the Senators wrote. “The recent data security incidents that have affected major corporations…demonstrate the need for such federal legislation.”

Last month, the Senators wrote to Target asking for answers from the company’s information security officials, and advocating the need for greater protection for consumers. The letter came in the wake of reports that as many as 110 million Target customers’ financial information, including credit card numbers for as many as 40 million consumers, may have been compromised. Consumers who shopped at Target’s U.S. stores, including the company’s 36 locations in Missouri, could have been impacted by the breach.

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