Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke issued the following statement on bipartisan efforts in Congress to improve cybersecurity which have resulted in a bill that would increase collaboration between federal agencies and private companies to protect our information and require additional monitoring of potentially vulnerable systems.

“It has become clear that we need to have a comprehensive policy on cybersecurity that protect our personal information – from the pin number of our credit and debit cards to our passwords to Facebook – from unauthorized disclosure,” said Congresswoman Clarke, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies, which last week voted to support the bill, which has been delivered to the Homeland Security Committee.

The recent breach of security at Target, in which millions of credit and debit card numbers and other information about cardholders was stolen by hackers, has increased concerns about the level of protection available to customers who use credit or debit cards almost every day for ordinary purchases.

The bill, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2013, was also introduced by Chairman Michael McCaul and Ranking Member Bennie Thompson of the Homeland Security Committee, as well as Subcommittee on Cybersecurity Chairman Patrick Meehan.

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.