Until recently, individuals whose information was compromised as a result of a company suffering a data breach faced an uphill battle when suing the company in a class action lawsuit. Far more often than not, Courts dismissed the lawsuits or entered summary judgment in favor of defendants on grounds that the plaintiffs could not establish… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Data Breach
Subscribe to Data Breach RSS FeedWhy is the Countrywide data breach lawsuit dismissal important?
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsAnother court has weighed in on the issue of what constitutes a cognizable injury in a data breach case. In a lengthy opinion, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Holmes v. Countrywide Financial Corp. dismissed a lawsuit against Countrywide by plaintiffs who claimed that their personal information had been compromised… Continue Reading
Video Interview: Discussing the LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Suit with LXBN TV
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security, LawsuitsFollowing my post on the subject last week, I had the chance to speak with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN regarding the class action suit filed against LinkedIn following their recent high-profile data breach. In the brief interview, I explain the background of the case, what damages the plaintiffs are alleging and why it’s too early… Continue Reading
Federal Data Breach Notification Laws
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data SecurityThe title of this blog entry is somewhat of a misnomer because there is no single national data breach notification law that governs all information the same way as the state data breach notification laws do. So, for the time being, companies and consumers are forced to determine which state data breach notification laws apply… Continue Reading
State Data Breach Notification Laws
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data SecurityIn 2005, a company called ChoicePoint, which collected personal and financial information for millions of consumers, was the victim of a security breach. Criminals stole from ChoicePoint personal information for more than 145,000 individuals. The floodgates opened and a variety of other corporations and organizations revealed similar data breaches that had resulted in unauthorized access… Continue Reading
Video Interview: Discussing the Global Payments Inc. Data Breach with LXBN TV
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data SecurityYesterday I had the opportunity to speak with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN TV regarding the recent major data breach involving Global Payments Inc. In the interview, I explain the background of the breach, which impacted all major credit cards, the lessons companies can learn from the breach and exactly who bears the burden—financially and otherwise—of… Continue Reading
Hacking the “Middle Man”
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data SecurityAnother massive high profile data breach was in the news this past week. MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover, as well as other banks and franchises were affected. Significantly, the breadth of the effect was not a result of separate attacks against each bank, but rather a hacking of one common third-party service provider—Global Payments… Continue Reading
Foreign Economic Cyber-Espionage (Part 3)
Posted in Data Breach, Data SecurityThis final blog entry in the series about economic cyber-espionage focuses on what, if anything, the government can do and is doing to limit cyber attacks that result in the theft of billions dollars worth of intellectual property and confidential proprietary information. The issue of cyber-espionage is receiving attention from the highest levels of government. … Continue Reading
Private Civil Lawsuits Arising From Data Breaches
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data SecurityThe U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently weighed in on the causes of action and damages that are (and are not) cognizable in a data breach case. In Anderson v. Hannaford Bros. Co., No 10-2384 (1st Cir. Oct. 20, 2011), the plaintiffs were customers of a grocery store chain. The grocery… Continue Reading


