Wall Street regulator to unveil new cybersecurity, customer data rules

(Reuters) – The top U.S. markets regulator is set to unveil a new effort to control how broker-dealers and others tackle the risk of hacking and respond to theft of customer data, continuing a regulatory drive on cybersecurity in the financial sector.

According to the agency’s website, the five members of Securities and Exchange Commission are scheduled to vote March 15 on three new proposals. Since last year, the Commission has released a series cybersecurity proposals that have cited an increased risk for investors and public companies.

The Commission will vote to approve or deny a proposal to require clearing houses, broker-dealers and others to address hacking risk by adopting internal policies, alerting and disclosing publicly incidents and implementing appropriate procedures.

An identical proposal was made to investment advisers last year. However, it was rebuffed by some industry groups who claimed that requiring investment companies to report hacking incidents in confidence within 48 hours could slow down efforts to solve the problem.

On March 15, other proposals will be under review. These include whether broker-dealers or money managers should have programs in place to deal with unauthorized access to customer data, notifying those affected and expanding the scope of entities that are subject to SEC rules regarding market technology and infrastructure.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison. Editing by Deepababington.