Indiana: Forty-five Day Data Breach Deadline
Indiana’s amendment updates the state data breach notification law to provide a clear notification timeline. Prior to the amendment, the law specifies notification to required persons must be provided “without unreasonable delay.” Under the amendment, beginning July 1, 2022, entities that suffer a notifiable breach under the law must provide such notice “without unreasonable delay, but not more than 45 days after discovery of the breach.”1
This changes the old timeframe, which was simply “without unreasonable delay,” now giving companies a clear notification deadline. A delay is considered reasonable if it is:
- Necessary to restore the integrity of the computer system.
- Necessary to discover the scope of the breach.
- In response to a request from the (Indiana AG) or a law enforcement agency to delay disclosure because disclosure will:
- Impede a criminal or civil investigation.
- Jeopardize national security.2
Indiana joins a large number of states with a specific notification deadline, with many adopting a similar 45-day requirement, such as: Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon and Wisconsin among others.
Arizona: Notification to Multiple State Regulators
Arizona’s amendment alters its data breach law’s notification requirements to include the Arizona Department of Homeland Security on the list of regulators that may have to be notified.3
Effective 90 days after the legislature adjourns,4 if a breach requires notification to more than 1,000 Arizona individuals, then notification must be made to the following entities:
- The three largest nationwide consumer reporting agencies.
- The Arizona Attorney General.
- The Arizona Department of Homeland Security.5
Such notification must be made within 45 days after an investigation determines that a data breach occurred. Previously, an organization notifying over 1,000 Arizona individuals would have only had to notify the three largest nationwide consumer reporting agencies and the Arizona Attorney General. With this amendment, Arizona is one of the few states to require notification to multiple state regulatory agencies.
Affected companies should move quickly to adjust their breach response plans to account for these amendments, setting a new timeframe to account for Indiana’s 45 day deadline and adding the Arizona Department of Homeland Security to the list of regulators to potentially notify.
Please contact a member of Akin Gump’s cybersecurity, privacy and data protection team if you have any questions about these amendments or how they will affect your company’s data breach response plan.
1 H.E.A. 1351 § 3(a).
2 Id. § 3(a)(1-3).
3 H.B. 2146 § 18-552(A)(2).
4 The general effective date – estimated to be late September as of this writing.
5 Id.
