ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Each week seems to bring news of yet another cyber attack or data breach, and yet — despite the predictions last year that Congress and the White House would take swift action — very little has been done legislatively to prevent future breaches. However, January will bring in a new Congress and data security legislation is one of the items on their agenda.

What may — or may not — happen in Washington, D.C., on cyber security and data security is important to all merchants and businesses. The threat of cyber theft and data breaches is real and affects every business of every size and their customers. At this point, it is almost certainly a matter of when businesses will experience a breach, not if. Merchants across all channels spend $6.5 billion each year protecting against payment card fraud, which usually is the ultimate goal of data breaches. But cyber criminals have become more sophisticated and aggressive in breaking into networks to steal personal and financial information.

The convenience and fuel retailing industry conducts more than 160 million transactions each day and sells more than 80% of the U.S. motor fuels — with more than half of those sales transacted on credit and debit cards. In 2012, $540 billion of the industry’s sales were from electronic transactions.

To learn more about what policymakers may be working on and to get a sense of the political landscape for potential data security legislation, attend the free upcoming “Data Security Legislation and Regulation: 2014 Year in Review” webinar on December 11. The complimentary webinar will take place from noon to 1 p.m. (EST), addressing what issues are on the minds of policy makers, who the policy makers are, and how these policies could affect your business. Time will be provided for a question and answer session following the presentation.

Webinar presenters include NACS Director of Government Relations Paige Anderson, NACS legal counsel Doug Kantor, and Conexxus Executive Director Gray Taylor. Register now!