The consequences of a data breach reached new heights last week when Yahoo announced the resignation of its General Counsel in response to a series of security incidents the company suffered. A more fulsome explanation of the security incidents and Yahoo’s response can be found in item seven of the company’s 10-K, but here
Data Breach
60 Minutes Reports on Payment Card Data Breaches
By Al Saikali on
Ever wonder how your credit card gets compromised and how the bad guys get your information? This report on tonight’s episode of 60 Minutes provides an overview of what happens from the moment you swipe your card at the point-of-sale terminal to the moment when the card number is compromised and sold on a black…
Why Every Business Should Care About Florida’s Information Protection Act
By Al Saikali on
My last post described what the recently passed Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA) will do. This post analyzes how FIPA differs from Florida’s existing breach notification law and explains why those differences will hurt or help companies that maintain information about Florida residents. Florida’s Governor must still sign the FIPA into law, but his signature…
Everything You Need To Know About Florida’s New Data Protection Law
By Al Saikali on
The Florida Legislature recently passed the Florida Information Protection Act of 2014 (FIPA). This post describes the FIPA and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages to businesses governed by the new law. The FIPA must still be signed by the Governor, but the law received unanimous support in the legislature, so his signature is expected. Once…
Healthcare Organizations Take It On The Chin
By Al Saikali on
Posted in Data Breach, Data Breach, Data Privacy, Data Security, FTC, Health Care Industry, Lawsuits
If you have noticed an increasing number of high profile problems for healthcare organizations with respect to privacy and security issues these last few weeks you’re not alone. The issues have ranged from employee misuse of protected health information, web-based breaches, photocopier breaches, and theft of stolen computers that compromised millions of records containing unsecured…
U.S. Senate Considers Federal Data Security Legislation
By Al Saikali on
Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week that, if passed, would create proactive and reactive requirements for companies that maintain personal information about U.S. citizens and residents. The legislation, titled the “Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2013” (s. 1193) creates two overarching obligations: to secure personal information and…
Data Breach Lawsuits – Revisiting the Risks
By Al Saikali on
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…
Why is the Countrywide data breach lawsuit dismissal important?
By Al Saikali on
Another 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 …
Video Interview: Discussing the LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Suit with LXBN TV
By Al Saikali on
Following 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…
Federal Data Breach Notification Laws
By Al Saikali on
The 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…