PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

Why Do Lawsuits for Data Breaches Continue Even Though the Law Is Against Plaintiffs?

by Daniel J. Solove If there’s a big data breach, the class action lawyers will start nipping like a bunch of hungry crocodiles. Upwards of forty separate lawsuits were filed against Target after its data breach, and one was filed the day after the breach became public knowledge. The law, however, has thus far been […]

Does Training Really Work? Can It Reduce Data Security Breaches?

by Daniel J. Solove According to a recent report by Enterprise Management Associates, 56% of employees are not receiving any sort of data security awareness training. This is a rather distressing statistic. It is particularly distressing because according to another study, “when specific employee behaviors are addressed in a meaningful way to bring about a […]

Why the C-Suite Should Have Coffee with the Privacy and Security Officers Every Week

  by Daniel J. Solove As I discussed in a previous post, the two key things that organizations can do to prevent data incidents can be summed up in a simple rhyme: The C-Suite must care The workforce must be aware In this post, I want to focus on the “C-Suite” – a term used […]

10 Biggest Data Breaches: Facts and Lessons

  by Daniel J. Solove Recently, hackers from China stole 4.5 million records of patients from a hospital chain in Tennessee. Do you think that’s big? As a Bloomberg article notes, however,” they haven’t come close to entering the ranks of the biggest breaches of all time. In fact, they haven’t even cracked the top […]

The 2 Essential Ways to Prevent Data Breaches

by Daniel J. Solove We’re in the midst of a crisis in data protection. Billions of passwords stolen. . . Mammoth data breaches. . . Increasing threats. . . Malicious hackers . . .

The Biggest PR Mistake in Privacy and Data Security Incidents: An Interview with PR Expert Melanie Thomas

by Daniel J. Solove It happens all the time. An organization has a privacy incident or data breach. The news stories proliferate. Cries of “shame on you” reverberate across the Internet. A number of organizations have an incident response plan, but they often don’t have much of a plan for PR. Certain incidents can take […]

What Is Sensitive Data? Different Definitions in Privacy Law

by Daniel J. Solove I was corresponding with K. Royal the other day, as she was graciously providing some feedback on a training program I created, and we got to talking about sensitive data. In their privacy laws, many countries designate a special category of data called “sensitive data” that receives especially stringent protections. The […]

How Should the Law Handle Privacy and Data Security Harms?

by Daniel J. Solove In three earlier posts, I’ve been exploring the nature of privacy and data security harms. In the first post, Privacy and Data Security Violations: What’s The Harm?, I explored how the law often fails to recognize harm for privacy violations and data breaches. In the second post, Why the Law Often […]