Alan L. Friel and Gerald J. Ferguson of BakerHostetler provide their interpretation of recent rulings: Both the administrative law judge’s decision in LabMD and the Third Circuit’s recent decision in Wyndham, which we previously blogged about, put the FTC on notice that it cannot assume that in the wake of a security breach, allegedly inadequate data security will necessarily constitute…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
As if a 20-Year Consent Order Wasn’t Enough Fun: FTC Brings First Monetary Settlement in Information Security Case
Adam H. Greene of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP discusses the consent order Henry Schein Practice Solutions signed to settle an FTC complaint, and finds it noteworthy for a number of reasons. One of the reasons, he writes, is that it is the first consent order in a data security case to involve a monetary penalty. I don’t…
ICO takes enforcement action against Alzheimer’s Society (UPDATED)
From the ICO: The ICO has found serious failings in the way volunteers at a national dementia support charity handled sensitive personal data. It has orderedThe Alzheimer’s Society to take action after discovering that volunteers were using personal email addresses to receive and share information about people who use the charity, storing unencrypted data on…
Does a data breach really affect your firm’s reputation?
Doug Drinkwater reports what regular readers have likely already noticed: following a data breach, customers are upset, some will be reluctant to do business again with the entity, there may be brand or reputation damage to the firm, but big businesses survive and will continue to grow or rebound. So there may or may not be reputation…
40,000 Packages of Backlogged Claims Material Discovered at Single VA Office
This is absolutely disgraceful. Morgan Chalfant reports: More than 40,000 backlogged mail packages of veterans’ disability claims material were discovered at a VA regional office in Florida, according to a new report from the VA inspector general. Investigators also found more than 1,600 boxes of unprocessed veterans’ claims material at a scanning facility with which the St….
Watchdog slams laptop security at Dept. of the Interior
Greg Otto reports: Nearly 12,000 Interior Department laptops are inadequately protected against the theft of personally identifiable information due to poorly configured software. In a management advisory obtained by FedScoop, the department’s Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that a large number of laptops have their full-disk encryption software configured to run post-boot user authentication,…