Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

When Your Data Goes Viral: Insurance for Data Breaches

By Sherilyn Pastor and Kelly Lloyd
December 31, 2014

Data breaches are part of the technological age. Indeed, 2013 was dubbed the year of the “mega breach,” and in 2014, as of Sept. 23, 2014, there had been 568 publicly reported data breaches, exposing 75,097,642 records. See Identity Theft Resource Center, 2014 Data Breach Category Summary (Sept. 23, 2013) (http://bit.ly/15MUZlF). In early October 2014, JPMorgan Chase reported a data breach affecting as many as 76 million households and 7 million small businesses, making it one of the largest data breaches ever reported.

A data breach typically involves the unauthorized release or access of personal or confidential information. Personal information includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial information, or health information. In addition to personal information, a data breach can also jeopardize a company's confidential information such as client records, trade secrets, privileged legal information, or employee records. Although many associate data breaches with hackers or cyberattacks, human error, such as a mistake in computer coding or losing a company laptop, also have resulted in significant breaches. A 2014 study concluded that 44% of data breaches were from malicious or criminal attacks against an organization, but 31% resulted from employee negligence and 25% resulted from system glitches. And at press time,'a new'Sony data breach, allegedly carried out by the North Koreans,'was all over the media, with informaton still to come.

Read These Next
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later Image

The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.

The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs Image

The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.

Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations Image

This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.

Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

A Lawyer's System for Active Reading Image

Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.