On Thursday, the Ohio Chamber offered their support to House Bill 116; legislation that would create the Ohio Computer Crimes Act. Specifically, this bill would update how cybersecurity crimes are defined and ultimately tried.
Our support for HB 116 comes from the Ohio Small Business Council which serves as one of the nine standing committees within the Ohio Chamber. Members of this committee are owners of for-profit companies with under five-hundred employees that operate in the state of Ohio. Many times, they bring up cybersecurity concerns and this bill seeks to modernize how computer crimes are charged.
HB 116 provides another tool in the toolbox for law enforcement as they seek to weed out bad actors, protect personal data, and protect small businesses who may not have all the resources available to do this on their own. It also serves as the next step in cybersecurity updates that Ohio has pursued.
In the 132nd General Assembly, Senate Bill 220 was enacted into law which created an affirmative defense to a tort action against a covered entity because of a data breach, if the entity is accused of failing to implement reasonable information security controls and the entity has a cybersecurity program that meets the act’s requirements.
HB 116 is a reintroduction of House Bill 368 from the 133rd General Assembly and we are hopeful that this time around, it will make its way all the way through the legislative process and into law.