PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Burn Before You Learn or Learn Rather than Burn

By Daniel J. Solove It seems as though every week brings news of another batch of data breaches . . . and they’re getting bigger. Target. Home Depot. Sony. Anthem. The list goes on and on. The costs of many of these breaches are devastatingly large. And yet most data breaches are readily preventable. After […]

Facebook Privacy Sherpas, the Internet of Things, and Other Privacy + Security Updates

By Daniel J. Solove and Paul M. Schwartz This post is co-authored with Professor Paul M. Schwartz. This post is part of a post series where we round up some of the interesting news and resources we’re finding. For a PDF version of this post, and for archived issues of previous posts, click here.

Why the Anthem Data Breach Is Needlessly Harmful

By Daniel J. Solove Recently, Anthem, one of the largest health insurance providers, suffered a massive data breach involving personal data on up to 80 million people. According to Anthem, the data breached includes “names, dates of birth, member ID/ social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and employment information.”

The Funniest Hacker Stock Photos

By Daniel J. Solove   I produce computer-based privacy and data security training, so I’m often in the hunt for stock photos. One of the hardest things in the world to do is to find a stock photo of a hacker that doesn’t look absolutely ridiculous. I’ve gone through hundreds of hacker stock photos, and […]

Drones, Data Breaches, Cramming, and Other Privacy + Security Updates

by Daniel J. Solove This post is co-authored with Professor Paul M. Schwartz. This post is part of a post series where we round up some of the interesting news and resources we’re finding. For a PDF version of this post, and for archived issues of previous posts, click here. We became quite busy after […]

The Sony Data Breach: 3 Painful Lessons

  by Daniel J. Solove The Sony data breach is an exclamation mark on a year that is already known as the” Year of the Data Breach.” This data breach is the kind that makes even the least squeamish avert their eyes and wince. There are at least three things that this breach can teach […]

Privacy and Security Developments 2014 Issue 1

by Daniel J. Solove Issue 2014 No. 1 This post is co-authored with Professor Paul M. Schwartz. We spend a lot of time staying up to date so we can update our casebooks and reference books, so we thought we would share with you some of the interesting news and resources we’re finding. We plan […]

The Brave New World of HIPAA Enforcement

by Daniel J. Solove Are privacy and security laws being enforced effectively? This post is post #4 of a series called Enforcing Privacy and Security Laws. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations govern health information maintained by various entities covered by HIPAA (“covered entities”) and other organizations that receive health information from […]

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 […]