PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

Notable Privacy and Security Books 2015

For several years, I have been posting about notable books on privacy and security, and this post lists some of the notable books from 2015.  To see a more comprehensive list of nonfiction works about privacy and security, you might consult this resource page that Professor Paul Schwartz and I maintain: Nonfiction Privacy + Security […]

What Can We Learn From Bad Passwords?

By Daniel J. Solove The SplashData annual list of the 25 most widely used bad passwords recently was posted for passwords used in 2015.  The list is compiled annually by examining passwords leaked during a particular year.  Here is the list of passwords for 2015, and below it, I have some thoughts and reactions to […]

New Privacy and Security Awareness Training Programs

I created some new training programs last year, and here are some of the highlights: The Ransomware Attack (~5 mins) This short program (~5 minutes) consists of an interactive cartoon vignette about malware.  The program is highly interactive, and trainees engage with a scenario involving ransomware. Although this program involves ransomware, the lessons it teaches […]

The Ultimate Unifying Approach to Complying with All Laws and Regulations

Professor Woodrow Hartzog and I have just published our new article, The Ultimate Unifying Approach to Complying with All Laws and Regulations, 19 Green Bag 2d 223 (2016).  Our article took years of research and analysis, intensive writing, countless drafts, and endless laboring over every word. But we hope we achieved a monumental breakthrough in the […]

3 Types of Incidents Account for 86% of HIPAA Data Breaches

A new report by Verizon, the PHI Data Breach report, analyzes 1,931 data breaches of protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA,  The incidents occurred between 1994 and 2014, with most occurring from 2004-2014.  An article from Computer World sums up the findings of the report. One interesting statistic is that 392 million PHI records were […]

Teaching Information Privacy Law

I originally posted a version of this post more than 10 years ago, in 2005.  I think it is important to re-post it, with a few updates. I strongly recommend teaching information privacy law in law schools.  I have authored several textbooks in the field, and I know that this might seem like a self-plug.  […]

Is HIPAA Enforcement Too Lax?

By Daniel J. Solove ProPublica has been running a series of lengthy articles about HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforcement that are worth reading. A Sustained and Vigorous Critique of OCR HIPAA Enforcement A ProPublica article from early in 2015 noted that HIPAA fines were quite rare. The article noted that from 2009 through […]

The Scope and Potential of FTC Data Protection

I am pleased to announce the publication of my article, The Scope and Potential of FTC Data Protection., 83 George Washington Law Review 2230 (2015).  I wrote the article with Professor Woodrow Hartzog. The article addresses  the scope of FTC authority in the areas of privacy and data security (which together we refer to as […]

The Value of HIPAA Training

HIPAA expert Rebecca Herold offers a very compelling explanation of the value of HIPAA training.  She writes: Information security and privacy education is more important than ever because new gadgets and technologies enable more healthcare workers to collect and share data. In September 2015, Cancer Care Group agreed to settle HIPAA violations by paying a […]