Letter to Kevin McAleenan, Acting Secretary of U.S Department of Homeland Security - Sen. Rick Scott to Homeland Security: Americans Need Answers on CBP Data Breach

Letter

Dear Acting Secretary McAleenan:

As a U.S. Senator, my top priority is protecting the safety of American families. That includes protecting their personal information and privacy.

I'm troubled by recent reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has known for a month about a data breach of sensitive information that occurred under its watch. CBP maintains a database of photos of U.S. travelers, including faces and vehicle license plates. Reports indicate that these images were hacked through a government subcontractor -- an extremely concerning allegation. So far, your agency has not publicly released detailed information on exactly what occurred.

I am writing today to ask that you immediately provide information on the following:

Can you publicly outline exactly what occurred?
Have the impacted travelers been notified?
What states were impacted?
How does CBP plan to prevent this type of data breach in the future?

Americans deserve to know how their personal information is being used, especially by their government. Anything other than full transparency is unacceptable, and I look forward to your timely response on how we can better protect the privacy of American families.

Sincerely,

Rick Scott

United States Senator

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