Public confidence in e-commerce will erode if Congress does not step forward and pass a meaningful national data breach disclosure law this year, according to the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA).

The industry advocacy group wrote congressional leaders last week urging them to put aside political differences and put legislation on President Bush's desk by the end of the year.

The CSIA said more than 52 million of Americans' personal records have been hacked, lost, stolen or otherwise compromised over the last year.

"These security breaches, from medical records to Social Security numbers and credit card accounts, were once front-page news," the letter states. "Today, they have become so commonplace as to hardly seem newsworthy, but their cumulative effect has been to corrode public confidence in the security of private information."

The 109th Congress opened more than a year-and-a-half ago in the immediate aftermath of high-profile data breaches suffered by ChoicePoint and LexisNexis.

Hearings were immediately held but neither the House nor the Senate has yet to pass any legislation.

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