Germany Broaches the Breach Question in the EU

With amendments to the German Federal Data Protection Law (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz) that took effect last month, Germany has become an early adopter of data breach notification obligations in the European Union.  Data breach notification laws are widespread in the United States (now in force in 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands ), but the EU has lagged in this area of regulation.  That will almost certainly change, because proposed revisions to the EU electronic communications framework are expected to require all EU member states to introduce data breach notification legislation.