WASHINGTON — The Senate Commerce Committee last week unanimously approved a data security bill that is sure to be the first of many this Congress.

The Identity Theft Prevention Act (S. 1178), sponsored by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), was passed onto the full Senate for a vote. The bill would require covered entities to develop a written plan and that breaches potentially impacting more than 1,000 consumers be reported to the Federal Trade Commission, which would post the relevant information on its Web site (www.ftc.gov), and the consumer credit reporting agencies. For those under 1,000, it must be reported to the FTC, but individuals potentially affected would only have to be notified after determining an elevated level of risk posed by the breach. A provision for reimbursement by the entity experiencing the breach to the entity notifying the consumers for related costs is included, as well as consumer security freezes.

Data security was a hot topic in Congress last year, producing about a dozen bills, but nothing ever got resolved due to jurisdictional turf wars among the committees involved.