What is FACTA?
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) is a 2003 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that focused on increasing consumer protections and reducing identity theft risk. From a cybersecurity perspective, FACTA’s key provisions include:
- Red Flags Rule: Requires covered entities (e.g., creditors and certain financial institutions) to implement identity theft detection programs.
- Secure information disposal: Mandates secure disposal of consumer data (e.g., shredding physical records or securely erasing digital files).
- Fraud alerts and truncated receipts: Allows fraud alert placement on reports and prohibits printing full card numbers or expiration dates on receipts.
FACTA links to broader financial and cybersecurity compliance by emphasizing proper handling and disposal of sensitive information, risk detection and maintaining consumer rights. Demonstrating compliance with FACTA comes down to implementing appropriate policies, standards and procedures to ensure Business As Usual (BAU) operations securely handle sensitive data and prevent identity theft.