Timothy B. Lee writes: On Friday, the U.S. government filed its brief in the appeal of Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, who was convicted of federal hacking charges for downloading hundreds of thousands of customer e-mail addresses from AT&T’s Web site. The government says the conviction was proper, but many security researchers and civil liberties advocates argue that the…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Clark & Anderson accounting firm notifies thousands after unencrypted backup drive stolen from employee’s car
A Maryland accounting firm had to notify 2,906 Maryland residents after an unencrypted backup drive was stolen from an employee’s car at his home. The theft occurred on August 4, but Clark & Anderson, P.A. didn’t learn of it until August 8. In a letter dated August 30 to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, they…
Experian reports another breach of its credit report database (update 2)
I haven’t been seeing as many breach reports by Experian this year, which could be a good sign, although it just could be that some states haven’t updated their breach lists in while. In any event, one just showed up on New Hampshire’s site that elevated an eyebrow. In a letter dated September 16 signed…
LabMD Responds to FTC Complaint: Claims Agency Lacks Enforcement Jurisdiction
Just received this press release from Cause of Action with LabMD’s response to FTC’s complaint: Cause of Action (CoA), a government accountability organization, filed an answer to an aggressive and arbitrary enforcement action brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against LabMD, a small cancer diagnosis company. CoA is defending LabMD against a complaint brought by the FTC in…
Should Statutory Damages Be Covered? Many Courts Say Yes
Rene L. Siemens and David L. Beck of Pillsbury Law write: It is often said that liability insurance does not provide coverage for fines and penalties imposed on an insured. Part of the difficulty is determining what constitutes a fine or penalty. Many courts have recently rejected insurance company arguments that “statutory damages” are uninsurable…
I never promised you a rose garden
I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine There’s gotta be a little rain sometime — From the song The song was running through my head as I read Law360’s report that LinkedIn’s latest attempt to get the lawsuit against it dismissed claims it never made premium subscribers any…