<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> Cyber Attacks Demand Rapid Response, ACC Panel Says

Be ready and act fast. That's the advice a panel on cybersecurity attacks at the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting last month told in-house lawyers.'

'The amount of time companies have to respond is shrinking,' said Miriam Wugmeister, a New York partner at Morrison & Foerster who moderated the panel. Wugmeister, whose practice includes privacy and data security, noted that Target Corp. notified 40 million people in four days after its 2013 data breach. Target is a client of Morrison & Foerster.

'That's where the bar has been set,' Wugmeister said.

The panel also included: Korin Neff, corporate compliance officer at Wyndham Worldwide Corp.; Erez Liebermann, senior regulatory counsel at Prudential Financial Inc.; and Jeremy Batterman, an associate director at Navigant Consulting.

At the meeting in Boston, they participated in a session titled 'A Brave New World: Cybersecurity and Data Protection in the Wake of Recent Corporate Attacks.'

The four panelists emphasized the importance of creating precrisis relationships and agreements with vendors who can help, such as forensic firms and credit monitoring companies. Liebermann suggested getting to know local secret service and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials.

'Once you develop that personal relationship, they're going to view you in a different light,' Liebermann said.

Companies need to be ready for dire situations, including those like the 2014 cyberattack that North Korean hackers mounted against Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Liebermann said.

When planning for a possible incident, 'you should start thinking about your business-continuity people in the room,' Liebermann said. He added that hackers might be reading company emails even in breaches that do not resemble the Sony situation.

And hackers aren't just targeting major public companies, Batterman said.

Midsize companies, privately held companies and smaller hospitals are facing smaller scale, but still very disruptive breaches, Batterman said.

'This is, again, circling back why it's important to get arrangements [in place],' Batterman said.

During the session, the panel weighed in on several hypothetical situations. The first scenario was a phone call from a well known security blogger about a rumored breach at the company on Friday afternoon of a three-day weekend. Another was a confirmation by internal colleagues and an outside forensic firm that a data breach compromised the names, addresses and credit card data of 10 million customers in the United States and information about upcoming merger and acquisition deals.

The panel members suggested different types of professionals to serve on response teams, such as communications and investor relations, depending on the situation.

Batterman and Wugmeister also suggested keeping the response team small enough to minimize the likelihood of leaks.

Neff and other panelists emphasized the importance of having agreements with more than one outside company that can be called in to handle a specific task, like credit monitoring.

'It's not a huge universe of choices, so having relationships with more than one vendor is pretty important as well,' Neff said.

Sheri Qualters writes for'The National Law Journal, an ALM sibling of e-Commerce Law & Strategy. She can be reached at'[email protected].

'

Be ready and act fast. That's the advice a panel on cybersecurity attacks at the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting last month told in-house lawyers.'

'The amount of time companies have to respond is shrinking,' said Miriam Wugmeister, a New York partner at Morrison & Foerster who moderated the panel. Wugmeister, whose practice includes privacy and data security, noted that Target Corp. notified 40 million people in four days after its 2013 data breach. Target is a client of Morrison & Foerster.

'That's where the bar has been set,' Wugmeister said.

The panel also included: Korin Neff, corporate compliance officer at Wyndham Worldwide Corp.; Erez Liebermann, senior regulatory counsel at Prudential Financial Inc.; and Jeremy Batterman, an associate director at Navigant Consulting.

At the meeting in Boston, they participated in a session titled 'A Brave New World: Cybersecurity and Data Protection in the Wake of Recent Corporate Attacks.'

The four panelists emphasized the importance of creating precrisis relationships and agreements with vendors who can help, such as forensic firms and credit monitoring companies. Liebermann suggested getting to know local secret service and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials.

'Once you develop that personal relationship, they're going to view you in a different light,' Liebermann said.

Companies need to be ready for dire situations, including those like the 2014 cyberattack that North Korean hackers mounted against Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Liebermann said.

When planning for a possible incident, 'you should start thinking about your business-continuity people in the room,' Liebermann said. He added that hackers might be reading company emails even in breaches that do not resemble the Sony situation.

And hackers aren't just targeting major public companies, Batterman said.

Midsize companies, privately held companies and smaller hospitals are facing smaller scale, but still very disruptive breaches, Batterman said.

'This is, again, circling back why it's important to get arrangements [in place],' Batterman said.

During the session, the panel weighed in on several hypothetical situations. The first scenario was a phone call from a well known security blogger about a rumored breach at the company on Friday afternoon of a three-day weekend. Another was a confirmation by internal colleagues and an outside forensic firm that a data breach compromised the names, addresses and credit card data of 10 million customers in the United States and information about upcoming merger and acquisition deals.

The panel members suggested different types of professionals to serve on response teams, such as communications and investor relations, depending on the situation.

Batterman and Wugmeister also suggested keeping the response team small enough to minimize the likelihood of leaks.

Neff and other panelists emphasized the importance of having agreements with more than one outside company that can be called in to handle a specific task, like credit monitoring.

'It's not a huge universe of choices, so having relationships with more than one vendor is pretty important as well,' Neff said.

Sheri Qualters writes for'The National Law Journal, an ALM sibling of e-Commerce Law & Strategy. She can be reached at'[email protected].

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