The National Association of Insurance Commissioners kicked off their fall meeting in National Harbor, Maryland this week. In her opening speech, NAIC President and Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Monica Lindeen said that the state insurance commissioners are committed to working with the federal government to help combat cyber threats, but that they are opposed to federal laws that would preempt state authority on those matters.
“It is critical that as we work with Congress to identify and develop responses to data breaches, our hands are not tied by the federal regulations,” she said. “While there are potential benefits of establishing cross-sector minimum standards for data security, we must remain skeptical of any pre-emption of state authorities to safeguard consumer information or mitigation of harm resulting from a data breach of insurance consumer information. States must remain free to go above and beyond federal standards and to retain their enforcement powers.