In response to the increasing breaches of sensitive private
information maintained in electronic format, the New York State Legislature
enacted the New York State Information Security Breach and Notification
Act, Chapters 442 and 491 of the Laws of 2005, and codified as Section
208 of the New York State Technology Law ("the Law"). New York State
values the protection of private information of individuals. Under
the Law, municipalities must adopt a notification policy designed
to alert persons if private information maintained by the municipality
in electronic format has been accessed without authorization. This
policy requires notification to affected New York residents and nonresidents.
The purpose of this enactment is to comply with the Law; under the
Law, the City of Middletown is required to notify an individual when
data, which is maintained by the City of Middletown and contains the
individual's private information, has been, or is reasonably
believed to have been, compromised.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY
Any person which, for monetary fees, dues, or on a cooperative
nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice
of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information
on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third
parties, and which uses any means or facility of interstate commerce
for the purpose of preparing or furnishing consumer reports. The State
Attorney General is responsible for compiling a list of consumer reporting
agencies and furnishing the list upon request to the City of Middletown.
DATA
Any information created, stored (in temporary or permanent
form), filed, produced or reproduced, regardless of the form or media.
Data may include, but is not limited to, personally identifying information,
reports, files, folders, memoranda, statements, examinations, transcripts,
images, communications, electronic or hard copy.
INFORMATION
The representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in
a formalized manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or
processing by human or automated means.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Any information concerning a natural person which, because
of name, number, personal mark or other identifier, can be used to
identify such natural person.
PRIVATE INFORMATION
A.
Personal information in combination with any one or more of
the following data elements, when either the personal information
or the data element is not encrypted or encrypted with an encryption
key that has also been acquired:
(1)
Social security number; or
(2)
Driver's license number or nondriver identification card
number; or
(3)
Account number, credit or debit card number, in combination
with any required security code, access code, or password which would
permit access to an individual's financial account
B.
Private information does not include publicly available information
that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal,
state, or local government records.
THIRD PARTY
Any non-City of Middletown employee such as a contractor,
vendor, consultant, intern, other municipality and the like.
This chapter, and the policies contained in this chapter, applies
not only to information maintained by the City of Middletown itself,
but also to information maintained on behalf of the City of Middletown
by a third party.