Senate Bill No. 534
(By Senators Bowman, Snyder and Minard)
____________
[Introduced March 10, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §5A-7-11 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing the Chief Technology
Officer to receive confidential records and have access to an
agency's database which may contain confidential information,
while accepting the responsibility to safeguard this
information as defined by applicable law; and providing a
penalty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5A-7-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. INFORMATION SERVICES AND COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION.
§5A-7-11. Confidential records.
(a) The head of any state department or agency may grant the
Chief Technology Officer in the Department of Administration access
to records, databases and information required by law to be kept
confidential. The Chief Technology Officer shall ensure that the security and privacy of any confidential information is, at a
minimum, maintained at the same level that the granting department
or agency is required by law to maintain. The Chief Technology
Officer shall develop policies and procedures for the safekeeping
of all confidential information required by law to be kept
confidential.
(b) Any person who knowingly and willfully releases or causes
to be released the confidential records and information described
in this section, except under the specific circumstances enumerated
in this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not more than $500 or confined in the jail
for not more than six months, or both.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Chief
Technology Officer to receive confidential records and have
access to an agencies' database which may contain confidential
information, while accepting the responsibility to safeguard this
information as defined by applicable law; and to provide a
penalty.
This section has been completely rewritten; therefore,
strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.