PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

What Is Privacy?

By Daniel J. Solove What is privacy? This is a central question to answer, because a conception of privacy underpins every attempt to address it and protect it.  Every court that holds that something is or isn’t privacy is basing its decision on a conception of privacy — often unstated.  Privacy laws are also based […]

Baseball’s “Hacking” Case: Are You a Hacker Too?

By Daniel J. Solove   I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan, so I guess it is fitting that my favorite team becomes embroiled in a big privacy and data security incident.  At the outset, apologies for the feature photo above.  It pulled up under a search for “baseball hacker,” and as a collector of ridiculous […]

Cybersecurity: Leviathan vs. Low-Hanging Fruit

by Daniel J. Solove There are certainly many hackers with sophisticated technical skills and potent malicious technologies.  These threats can seem akin to Leviathan — all powerful and insurmountable. It can be easy to get caught up focusing on the Leviathan and miss the low-hanging fruit of cybersecurity.  This low-hanging fruit consists of rather simple […]

The Importance and Goals of HIPAA Training Programs

by Daniel J. Solove There is a great quote in this article from HealthcareInfoSecurity: that expresses very well the importance and goals of HIPAA training programs: Workforce training is important not only for preventing breaches, including those involving ID crimes, but also to help detect those incidents, [Ann Patterson of the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance] says. […]

The OPM Data Breach: Harm Without End?

By Daniel J. Solove The recent breach of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) network involved personal data on millions of federal employees, including data related to background checks. OPM is now offering 18 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance to victims. But as experts note in a recent Washington Post article, […]

Use of Encryption Is Increasing — Albeit Slowly

by Daniel J. Solove According to a survey commissioned by Thales e-Security, the use of encryption by organizations is increasing.  Ten years ago, only 15% had an enterprise-wide encryption strategy. Now, 36% have such a strategy. Some other interesting findings from the survey also found, according to a ZDNet article:

New Resource Page: Text of HIPAA’s Training Requirements

by Daniel J. Solove I recently created a new resource page for the TeachPrivacy website: Text of HIPAA’s Training Requirements.  This page provides excerpts of the training provisions in the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule. This page is designed to be a useful companion page to our resource page, HIPAA Training Requirements: […]

Cybersecurity in the Boardroom

by Daniel J. Solove A few days ago, I posted about how boards of directors must grapple with privacy and cybersecurity.   Today, I came across a survey by NYSE Governance Services and Vericode of 200 directors in various industries. According to the survey, about two-thirds of directors are less than confident about their company’s cybersecurity.  […]

Boards of Directors Must Grapple with Privacy and Cybersecurity

By Daniel J. Solove Privacy and cybersecurity have become issues that should be addressed at the board level. No longer minor risks, privacy and cybersecurity have become existential issues. The costs and reputational harm of privacy and security incidents can be devastating. Yet not enough boards are adequately engaged with these issues. According to a […]