Bloomberg — President Barack Obama's top advisers urged Congress to act quickly to strengthen consumer data protections after the security breach at Anthem Inc.

"Hardly a week goes by when the problem is not on the front pages of the newspapers," John Podesta, counselor to Obama, said in a conference call with reporters promoting White House data protection proposals. "With each breach there is more need" for the legislation, he added.

Anthem, the second biggest U.S. health insurer by market value, disclosed that hackers obtained names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, street and e-mail addresses and income data on tens of millions of current and former customers. The attack underscores the need for "a single national standard to protect consumers from data breaches," Podesta said.