A federal court in Florida has ruled that the “personal injury” provisions of a Travelers / St. Paul commercial general liability (CGL) policy does not cover a data breach caused by third party hackers.  The court left unresolved the question whether the “property damage” or the costs of compliance with …

Special thanks to ASIS International (Broward County, Florida chapter) for inviting me to speak to them about data breach and cyber security litigation. You can review my powerpoint, here, which explains data breaches in general and then discusses how claims / litigation arises.  Most importantly, we discussed how companies can …

The Tor browser, which helps anonymize your internetting, has been updated to version 8.  It’s free and worth having on your desktop. First, these steps simple install a secondary browser on your computer.  No spyware.  It’s not illegal.  It’s just a simple browser. Download it here.  It will ask you …

Thanks to the Florida Dispute Resolution Conference for inviting me to speak at the 2018 conference. Topics covered: 25 ESI and E-Discovery Terms for Mediators in 75 minutes and Cybersecurity and Data Breach for Mediators. You can download the presentations here and here. If you would like CME points, you …

The U.S. Supreme Court recently noted, in Carpenter v. US, that Americans “compulsively carry cell phones with them at all times.” For those with iPhones and iPads, have you spent time in Settings protecting your private information? This article from the Palm Beach Bar Association Bulletin, explains ten different ways …

Thanks to the members of ASIS International Palm Beach #254 for the gracious invitation to speak to about the “Anatomy of a Data Breach Lawsuit.” This was an educational opportunity to discuss the stages of a data breach lawsuit (from the lawyer’s perspective) and how to protect company assets. You …

Relying upon a statute which has been amended twice since 1978, it is a crime in Florida to access someone else’s social media account without their authorization.  This likely happens dozens of times a day in this state, likely as a joke or a prank, which have or could lead …

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released in December 2016 a partially-redacted copy of its September 15, 2016 report on its, “Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden” (“House Report”). The House Report describes Snowden in the same tenor and tone that the …

My article, “Don’t Connect Your Phone to Rental Cars” explained how rental cars (and your leased car!) can collect data from your smartphone which creates a vulnerability when the next driver takes the car. The original post was a Business Advocate post at McDonald Hopkins.com, here.  It was also cross-posted …

In Facebook v. Power Ventures, Inc. et al., the Ninth Circuit held that it was a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 for the defendant to continue to access Facebook’s site after receiving a cease and desist letter from Facebook: “a defendant can run afoul of …

Thanks to professor and attorney Larry Buck for inviting me to speak today about Data Breach & Cyber Security Law at Florida Atlantic University. We discussed:  Standing: how the Clapper case was filed too soon, they lost in the Supreme Court, and then three months later it was revealed, beyond their …

James Veitch is a British writer and comedian. How he ended up on a TED Talk stage with this bit of techo-stand up, I dunno. But he hit it out of the park with “This Is What Happens When You Reply to Spam Email.” I highly recommend. It’s about 9 …

When most people think of data breach lawsuits, they think of large class action cases and settlements like Remijas v. Neiman Marcus and Target. But the vast majority of courts are denying class certification in cyber security cases. Within nearly a week of each other, two federal courts in New …

The FTC recently announced settlement with Henry Schein Practice Solutions for $250,000 in exchange for resolving the FTC’s claims that Schein falsely advertised that its dental office management software provided encryption. You can read the article, “The Database Software says it is ‘encrypted’… but is it?” here at McDonald Hopkins’ …

If you log onto the once-popular virtual currency exchange, Cryptsy, you can see the virtual version of tumbleweeds blowing through a western town in the form of “volume – 00.00” across the board. On January 14, 2016, the host “Big” Paul Vernor posted this blog post stating that hackers had …