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U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) introduced legislation that will require companies to better secure consumers’ sensitive personal information against a potential security breach. The Data Protection Act of 2017 would grant the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rulemaking authority to ensure that any entity that stores personally identifiable information, including a consumer’s address, social security number or credit card number, takes measures to secure that information.

“The recent Equifax data breach should serve as a wakeup call on the need to enhance data security,” said Dingell. “More than 140 million Americans were impacted by this breach and their sensitive data has now fallen into the wrong hands. We must raise the bar for companies that store sensitive personal information. This legislation will ensure that companies take proper steps to safeguard personal data and hold bad actors responsible.”

The Data Protection Act requires entities to take reasonable measures to secure personal information, including following best practices issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and keeping software up-to-date in order to mitigate security vulnerabilities.

The legislation would also increase penalties for companies that force individuals into binding arbitration in exchange for identity and credit monitoring services in the event of a breach. A copy of the bill is available here.