Since last we visited, your humble Publisher has moved on to the Law Offices of Richard J. Bortnick, where I am Managing Director (very European, if I do say so myself). A number of dedicated readers and friends (you know who you are) have asked what had become of me and why my old email address was no longer effective.

The answer my friend  (apologies to Peter, Paul and Mary) is the Law Offices of Richard J. Bortnick. At the risk of having this viewed as attorney advertising, I will stop there other than to say I also will be signing as a free agent with a Consulting Firm to be named later (but not much later).

So, please feel free to contact me if you want to catch up, engage in intellectual banter (with the exception of Philadelphia sports, where the banter will all be negative) or have some worthwhile humor you’d like to pass along (although it can’t be as good as the material I get from my good friend Jeff). My new email address is rjbortnick@comcast.net (at least for the short term… stay tuned on that too).

Its good to be back. And thanks for all of your kind wishes.

Rick

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I.     Introduction: Insurance Products for Cyber Risks

Increasing reports of cyber intrusions, data theft and computer system malfunctions have led a rapidly-growing number of companies to purchase insurance coverage to protect themselves from technology and cyber privacy risks. Indeed, as our technology-driven economy continues to evolve and businesses become more reliant on electronic communication and data storage, they are developing a heightened awareness that an unauthorized intrusion could endanger their tangible and intangible assets (including their intellectual property) and, in many cases, their reputations and abilities to conduct business. As such, prospective policyholders are becoming more cognizant of the necessity for insurance covering such growing exposures.

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The measure of effectiveness of a CEO and its executive board has always been the degree to which the business is achieving its purpose. Whether in Canada, the U.S., Europe or Asia, an executive board’s purpose should be to increase shareholder value, a purpose that is best accomplished by serving the needs of various stakeholders. Somewhere in the pyramid of stakeholders is the consumer or client, whose likes, favorites, and preferences must be met with quality personalized products and services that deliver high competitive value. In an interconnected global knowledge economy, this has meant listening to what consumers are saying online through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and engaging in two-way conversations to respond in real-time to consumer demands.

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On January 2, 2013 The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had entered into a Resolution Agreement with Hospice of North Idaho (“HONI”) to settle alleged HIPAA violations resulting from the theft of an unencrypted laptop computer containing the electronic personal health information of 441 patients.  This is the first HHS settlement involving the breach of protected health information (“PHI”) involving fewer than 500 individuals. 

After being notified by HONI of the stolen laptop, the HHS Office Civil Rights (“OCR”) conducted an investigation and concluded the following: 

• HONI did not conduct an accurate and thorough risk analysis as required by the HIPAA Security Rule, especially with respect to an evaluation of the likelihood and impact of potential risks to the confidentiality of electronic PHI maintained in and transmitted by portable devices.  
• HONI did not have in place police or procedures to address the security of PHI stored or transmitted in portable electronic devices. 

 In entering into the Resolution Agreement, HONI agreed to pay $50,000 and enter into two-year corrective action plan with HHS.  A copy of the Resolution Agreement can be found at:  http://www.hhs.gov.privacy/hipaa/enforcement/examples/honi-agreement.pdf.

 Although this case is unique in that it is the first settlement by HHS of a data breach involving fewer than 500 individuals, the facts that gave rise to the action by HHS are all too familiar.  The breach resulted from the theft of an unencrypted laptop and HHS was troubled by the provider’s alleged lack of a risk analysis and appropriate policies and procedures to protect PHI stored in or transmitted by portable electronic devices.  In this era of increased HIPAA enforcement, covered entities and business associates must remain vigilant in their HIPAA compliance efforts.  This includes, without limitation, (i) conducting thorough risk assessments, (ii) developing and updating robust HIPAA policies and procedures, and (iii) conducting ongoing HIPAA training and awareness programs with all staff.   In essence, affected entities must create what OCR has often referred to as a “culture of compliance.”  Moreover, emphasis should be placed on the use and safeguards of portable electronic devices, which, as in this case, are frequently at the center of a data breach.

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Following is a guest post by Doug Pollack, CIPP/US, chief strategy officer at ID Experts, a leading provider of healthcare privacy and data breach solutions. The article explores the thorny issue of “ownership” as it applies to patient data stored in and shared by electronic health record systems.

Cheers.

Rick

 I recently began exploring the question of who, or what entity, owns the data that is incorporated in our patient electronic health records (EHRs). I originally began thinking about this because I was imagining that the “owner” would be responsible under circumstances where there was an unauthorized disclosure of such protected health information (PHI), in other words a data breach. It seemed like such a simple question, I had assumed I would find the answer to be just as straightforward. As it turns out, many have pondered this question and suggest that the question of “ownership” of medical data may be a misplaced one, an unanswerable question, and that the more relevant question is what control the patient, and other members of the health ecosystem, have relative to accessing, modifying, appending and transmission of this data. In other words, how is patient privacy provided for within the new EHR universe?

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The recent decision The Queen v. Cole by the Supreme Court of Canada touches upon interesting issues regarding information privacy in the digital age.

The facts are simple. An information technologist working at the same high school as Mr. Cole, a teacher, remotely accessed Cole’s history of internet access and one of his drives and found a hidden file which contained nude photographs of a student. The photographs and internet file were copied onto a disc and given to the police, which determined that a search warrant was unnecessary. Cole was subsequently charged with possession of child pornography and fraudulently obtaining data from another computer hard drive. The trial judge excluded the computer material under Sections 8 and 24(2) of the Charter. In overturning the decision, the summary conviction appeal court found no breach of Section 8. This decision was set aside by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which concluded that the evidence of the disc containing the temporary internet files and the laptop computer and its mirror image was excluded. A 6-1 majority ruling by the Supreme Court concluded that the police infringed upon Cole’s rights but upheld the Court of Appeals’ finding that the evidence should not have been excluded from trial.

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Since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) privacy rules became effective in April 2003, there has been minimal enforcement activity by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”).   However, this has changed dramatically over the last two years, as evidenced by some recent high-profile and high-penalty enforcement actions taken by OCR.  In addition to being concerned about OCR investigations, moreover, covered entities and business associates must also be on the alert for enforcement actions by state Attorney Generals, potential class action lawsuits, and OCR’s HIPAA audit program.  Even though many in the health care industry are sitting in a holding pattern waiting for the HIPAA/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act final rules, covered entities and business associates should thus be as vigilant as ever, if not more so, in their HIPAA compliance efforts.

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The following column appeared in the September 2012 issue of the Advisen Cyber Journal. I hope it resonates with our legal eagle subscribers. If not, then your brokers (and I) have more work to do.

Cheers.

Rick

Lawyers typically fancy themselves as the smartest people in the room. Many certainly have the largest egos in the room. But when it comes to keeping their own houses in order? Well, not so much. Its akin the shoemaker whose children go barefoot.

The same flaw appears to apply with equal force and effect with respect to accountants. And consultants. And, perhaps most incredibly, insurance brokers.

Perhaps you’ve figured out where I’m going with this. But in case you haven’t, here’s what I’m getting at. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, anecdotal reporting from a number of underwriters I’ve spoken with suggest that intelligent, thoughtful, (sometimes) rational people who bill others hundreds of dollars an hour or make sizable commissions for dispensing professional advice do not abide by their own wisdom and don’t buy cyber/technology/privacy (“CTP”) insurance.

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New legislation governing data breaches and privacy issues is popping up in states across the country. Most recently,  Connecticut, Vermont, and Illinois have enacted new laws in these areas.

Connecticut

At long last, the proposed legislation requiring a data breach to be reported has become law in Connecticut.  Section 369-701b was unable to move its way through the 2012 General Session of the Connecticut Legislature, but it was recently passed as part of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Special Session as an attachment of the Budget Bill.

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Whether discussing data encryption, network security, or internal data privacy management practices and policies, the most sophisticated IT security protocols, the most learned team of specialists, and the most compliant of data management practices and policies cannot escape, prevent, or remedy what many businesses and organizations have rightly labeled as the root cause of data security failures: human error. While they tend to possess greater network security than smaller organizations, the risk of human error should be of particular a concern to medium and large size organizations whose internal controls over data and employees are inevitably diluted by their size and numbers.

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Recent unauthorized access to British Columbia Institute of Technology’s computer network, which contained personal medical information of approximately 12,680 individuals, is yet another reminder of risks of exposure to data breaches. That none of the data on BCIT’s computer network was compromised or misused is reflective of a low-profile non-hacker intrusion, and of the ease with which computer networks can be infiltrated. Indeed, a sophisticated hacker would know better than to leave massive amounts of data, rightly labeled by some as the “oil” of the 21^st century, uncompromised. More curious than uncompromised data, however, is BCIT’s notification in the absence of an actual data breach, and mandatory breach notification provisions under B.C. privacy law.

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In a landmark decision, the First Circuit Court of Appeals held in Patco Construction Company, Inc. v. People’s United Bank, No. 11-2031 (1st Cir. July 3, 2012)  that People’s United Bank (d/b/a Ocean Bank) was required to reimburse its customer, PATCO Construction Co., for approximately $580,000 which had been stolen from PATCO’S bank account.  In so doing, the Court reversed the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Maine which had granted summary judgment in the bank’s favor.

The dispute arose when Ocean Bank authorized six fraudulent withdrawals over seven days from an online account held by PATCO.  While the bank’s security system flagged each one of the transactions as “high risk” because they were inconsistent with the timing, value, and geographic location of PATCO’s regular payment orders, the bank’s security system did not notify PATCO of this information and allowed the payments to go through. In light of this omission, PATCO sued, alleging that Ocean Bank should bear responsibility for the loss because its security system was not “commercially reasonable” under the Uniform Commercial Code, as codified under Maine Law.

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Jeremy Bentham used to refer to the common law as the “dog law”. As he explains it, “whenever your dog does anything you want to break him of, you wait till he does it, and then beat him for it. This is the way you make laws for your dog: and this is the way the judges make law for you and me.” . 

Insofar as the tort of invasion of privacy in Canada is concerned, Jeremy Bentham was arguably right. Aside from the province of Quebec, which is governed by a civil law system, and a few other provinces in Canada which have benefited from a statutorily enacted tort of invasion of privacy, lower Courts have been divided over the existence of a free-standing tort of invasion of privacy at common law. The recent decision Jones v. Tsige (2012) by the Ontario Court of Appeal is the first to confirm that what used to be an embryonic tort of invasion of privacy is now alive and well in Canada

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The cyber-attacks recently launched by six individuals from the group Anonymous, an international hacktivist collective, against 13 Quebec government and police websites are but a fleeting glimpse of a much broader problem associated with the cyber world, most of which remains largely unseen. Succinctly stated, the cyber-attacks were a response to the Quebec Liberal party’s constitutionally questionable Bill 78 that was recently passed as a response to the student crisis sparked three months ago over the government’s planned 75% tuition increase. That six individual were arrested by law enforcement agencies and charged with mischief, conspiracy, and unlawful use of a computer should hardly be reassuring.

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The following column was first published in the second issue of Advisen’s Cyber Liability Journal (here). I will republish my future columns in coming months. In the meantime, you can subscribe to the Journal at http://corner.advisen.com/journals.html (here).

Rick

It is axiomatic to say that insurance products evolve. Indeed, like virtually every organic structure, its development, growth and nimbleness are necessary to meet the progress of maturing, service-based economies. Hence, the advent of cyber/tech/privacy liability (CTP) insurance.

At present, there are over 25 markets selling some type of CTP coverage. Many insurers sell standalone products. Others bolt on new coverage parts to their existing products. Still others add endorsements that attempt to extend coverage to address an existing client’s business model.

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The following article was first published in Advisen’s inaugural Cyber Liability Journal (here) as my first regular column. The second Journal was published today and is available from Advisen at http://corner.advisen.com/journals.html (here). I will republish my second column in the coming days.

Rick

Many who underwrite or broker insurance, or practice law in the cyber/technology/privacy (“CTP”) realm migrated to this emerging area from the directors and officers liability regime. At the same time, it did not take a crystal ball to recognize that it was only a matter of time before CTP and D&O found a commonality.  And that time is now.

Virtually every public and private company is reliant on computer networks and electronic data. It’s a way of life in the 21^st Century. And there’s no going back. Yet with reliance comes risk. It seems we read about significant CTP breaches involving large, multinational companies almost on a weekly basis.  CTP breaches have become a well-recognized risk of doing business.  Estimates project that over 10 percent of us already have been hacked or had their identities stolen. I am among them.

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With its March 28, 2012 decision in Federal Aviation Administration, et al. v. Cooper, 132 S. Ct. 1441 (U.S. 2012), the United States Supreme Court restricted the scope of a federal privacy law, ruling that the law – which allows recovery for “actual damages” – only authorizes damages for monetary losses. Accordingly, a San Francisco pilot was not permitted to recover humiliation and emotional distress damages from government agencies that disclosed his HIV-positive status without his consent.

In 1964, Stanmore Cooper (“Cooper”) obtained his pilot’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”). In 1985, Cooper was diagnosed with HIV and began taking antiretroviral medication. At that time, the FAA did not issue medical certificates to persons with HIV, so Cooper gave up his pilot’s license, knowing that he would not qualify for renewal of his medical certificate. However, in 1994, Cooper re-applied for a pilot’s license and, to receive a medical certificate, purposefully withheld his HIV-positive status and medication from the FAA. He renewed his certificate four more times and as recently as 2004, each time withholding information about his condition. When Cooper’s health began to deteriorate, he applied for long-term disability benefits and, to substantiate his claim, disclosed his HIV-positive status to the Social Security Administration (“SSA”), which awarded him disability benefits.

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Trade dress insurance coverage is alive and well. At least in Wisconsin. In Acuity v. Ross Glove Company, 2012 WL 1109035 (Wis. Ct. App. April 4, 2012), the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that an insurer’s duty to defend was triggered under advertising injury liability coverage where the underlying complaint set forth allegations of trade dress infringement.

In the Acuity case, Ross Glove purchased a commercial general liability policy from Acuity, which included advertising injury liability coverage. The policy at issue defined “advertising injury”, in part, as “infringing upon another‘s copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisement.”

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On March 13, 2012 – almost 30 months after becoming one of the first entities to self-report a breach under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act – BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) agreed to pay the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a record setting $1.5 million civil monetary penalty (CMP) for failing to safeguard protected health information (PHI).

The HITECH Act and HIPAA Enforcement

HHS adopted the interim final rule for HITECH’s breach notification requirement only a few weeks before the BCBST breach. The final rule requires covered entities to notify HHS following a breach of unsecured PHI. If a breach affects 500 or more individuals, the covered entity must report the breach electronically “without reasonable delay and in no case later than 60 days from discovery of the breach.”

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Cloud computing is the storage of data on remote computer servers and the sharing and transmittal of such information by way of the internet.  Use of the cloud enables both businesses and casual users to maintain as much or as little electronic data as they wish on a third party’s mainframes without the need for or the expense of having to buy and maintain their own hardware systems.

The cloud’s economic benefits are clear.  Still, clouds can be a legal minefield for companies and their counsel. Data breaches, hosting of illegal content and inaccessibility of critical business information are just a few examples of turbulent situations cloud users can face.

Given the risks and potential rewards of the cloud, consider the following guide before entering into a cloud provider contract:

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The following article, written by my colleague Nicole Moody, first appeared in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Thanks to Nicole for allowing us to republish it here.

Rick Bortnick

Many of us have been there. Sipping our morning coffee, signing into our Facebook accounts, waiting to see what notifications will greet us. We are intrigued to see that we have a friend request.  Who could it be? An acquaintance from the past? A new colleague who we met at work? Whoever it is, we know that by accepting the request we will be granted access into this individual’s life and will know more about them in five minutes than we would know in a lifetime of small talk.

Due to the use of usernames and passwords, there is a belief that information shared on Facebook is confidential unless publicly shared. However, courts around the country are now addressing just how private this information really is.

In cases nationwide, litigants are asking courts to grant unfettered access to other parties’ Facebook or other social media accounts. Inevitably, in the age of status updates and hashtags, poking and friending, the lines between public and private information have become blurred. This trend has become increasingly prevalent in the insurance industry as insurance companies have realized the usefulness of social media in litigation. 

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We are grateful to the rapidly-growing number of Cyberinquirer readers who continue to submit substantive content for publication. This truly is an industry blog, and we strive to present alternative points of view from all quarters. 

The following article was authored by Gregg A. Rapoport, Esq., and David Lam, CISSP, CPP. Attorney Rapoport has represented policyholders in coverage litigation for over 20 years as part of a broad business litigation practice based in Pasadena, California. Mr. Lam is vice president of the Los Angeles Information Systems Security Association and has over 20 years of experience as an IT and information security professional and author. This article was first published by RIMS, and we appreciate Messrs. Rapoport and Lam offering it for republication here.

Rick Bortnick

As they confront the sobering question of whether their networks and the data they carry are fully secure, today’s “C-level” executives are becoming fluent in once-esoteric information security terms. Many have reached the conclusion that no matter the size of their IT and security budgets, there is no foolproof system for securing the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their data. Company networks remain vulnerable to attacks even if they adhere to industry best practices and run best-of-breed firewalls.

To address these security challenges, companies are relying on their risk managers to evaluate the applicability of existing insurance coverage to data breach incidents, and to assess the value of transferring some of the uncovered financial risk to one of the carriers now offering cyber-risk insurance policies. As the market for these products matures, premiums have come down significantly and policy limits have increased.

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The following article, written by reknowned London Market underwriter Rick Welsh, was first published in the November 2011 Data Guidance newsletter. A shout out to Rick for passing it on to us for republication.

Rick Bortnick

Today, no company – even with comprehensive privacy policies and practices – can be safe from data breaches. Can companies effectively transfer the risk (and cost) of data breaches by way of insurance? What costs should the companies consider? Almost every reference to the cost of data breaches or ‘cyber crime’ identifies the actual cost of the breach notification as its common currency. In Part One of this analysis, Rick Welsh, Cyber Underwriting Director at ANV, explores this metric’s limitations and the true exposure and cost of data breaches.

The well-regarded Ponemon Institute is constantly measuring the cost of a data breach and is commonly referenced by many to express the rising cost of data breaches. The second annual ‘Cost of Cyber Crime Study’ issued by the Ponemon Institute in August 2011, found that the median annualised cost of cyber crime for the 50 companies in the study was $5.9 million, with a range being between $1.5 million to $36.5 million. The annualised average was up 56% from the previous year’s study.

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The following article was written by my good friend, Scott Godes, a policyholder attorney with Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, D.C., and his colleague, Ken Trotter, and appeared on Scott’s personal site, Corporate Insurance Blog, after being published by Hospitality Upgrade magazine. Cyberinquirer neither ratifies nor necessarily agrees with the opinions stated below, which are Scott’s exclusively and not those of Cyberinquirer or Dickstein Shapiro.

Rick Bortnick

It is no secret that the hospitality industry continues to be vulnerable to data breaches and other cyberattacks.  A report by Willis Group Holdings, a British insurance firm, states that the largest share of cyberattacks (38 percent) were aimed at hotels, resorts and tour companies.  According to the report, insurance claims for data theft worldwide jumped 56 percent last year, with a bigger number of those attacks targeting the hospitality industry. Because businesses in the hospitality industry obtain and maintain confidential data from consumers–countless credit card records in particular–they will continue to be attractive targets for hackers and data thieves. Cybersecurity risks can cause a company to incur significant loss or liability. A data breach could result in the loss of important and sensitive customer information and, in some cyberevents, stolen company funds.  Companies also may face liabilities to third parties under statutory and regulatory schemes, incurring costs to mitigate, remediate and comply with the liability under these statutes.  Worse still, class action lawsuits have been filed around the country after data breaches, with plaintiffs alleging, among others, the loss of the value of their personal information, identity theft, invasion of privacy, negligence or contractual liability.  Even when companies have had success in defeating class actions, they nonetheless incurred significant legal expenses when defending those lawsuits. Read the rest of this entry »

As regular Cyberinquirer readers know, on October 12, 2011, the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance published “suggested” Guidance on public companies’ disclosures of their cyber risks and exposures. I published a personal perspective on the implications of the Guidance in an October 29, 2011 post (here). Since then, our friend John Doernberg of William Gallagher Associates in Boston has written an excellent, thoughtful article which adopts a more technical approach. As many of you may know, John is a Vice President at William Gallagher and focuses on privacy, information security and risk management issues. Before becoming an insurance broker in 1995, John practiced law at leading firms in New York and Boston. The following article first appeared at John’s own site, http://blog.wgains.com/?s=Doernberg, and is being republished here with his permission. Thanks John!

Rick Bortnick

Increased corporate reliance on computer networks and electronic data has brought a corresponding increase in risks associated with breaches of their security. Such breaches have become more frequent and severe. With these Guidelines, the Division has indicated that public companies and their advisors should focus greater attention on how disclosure obligations under the federal securities laws may be affected by the potential financial and operational impact of cybersecurity breaches.

The Guidelines note that cybersecurity breaches (generically referred to as cyber incidents) can be malicious (cyber-attacks) or unintentional. The Guidelines provide something of a rogue’s gallery of cyber malice: the gaining of unauthorized access to steal or corrupt sensitive data or to disrupt operations, denial of service attacks, sophisticated electronic circumvention of network security, and social engineering techniques such as phishing to extract passwords or other information that will enable the gaining of access.

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“Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.” That is the Facebook mantra, as displayed on its homepage, and the opening line of a recent – and extremely thorough! – Pennsylvania trial court decision regarding the discoverability of a plaintiff’s relevant Facebook information. The court’s conclusion: a plaintiff’s Facebook information is discoverable, provided the defendant has a good faith basis for seeking the material, because there is no confidential social networking privilege under Pennsylvania law and because the Stored Communications Act only applies to internet service providers. The take-away for Facebook users: be careful what you post – it’s not as “private” as you think!

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We’re only two weeks away from the season’s premier cyber education event: The PLUS Northwest Chapter & IIABKC Cyber Workshop, to be held on December 7 (a date which will live in infamy), 2011 at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. This will be my first trip to Seattle, so I’m really looking forward to it, as well as to meeting those of you who attend. The panel is entitled Emerging Issues Surrounding Cyber Privacy and Security Risk and will run for a full three-hours (with a corresponding 3 Washington state CE credits), from 1.30 PM to 4.30 PM, to be followed by the always popular cocktail reception.  The cost is to attend is dirt cheap, given the panelists and topic, as its $40 for PLUS members and $60 for non-members.

So, you’re wondering, who are the panelists? Well, PLUS Northwest has assembled a crackerjack lineup of the following special guest speakers:

David Molitano,Vice President/Division Manager, Content Technology & Services at OneBeacon Professional Insurance; Kimberly Horn, Claims Manager for Technology, Media and Business Services at Beazley Group; and Karl Peterson, Senior Vice President, E&O and eRisk Product Team at Willis Executive Risks Practice.

You’ll only get this quality of presenter at the PLUS Northwest Chapter event. Don’t be fooled by pretenders or others promoting cyber conferences with lesser lights. This is THE cyber event to attend. And the post-workshop cocktail reception is an added bonus.

Please feel free to contact PLUS or me if you have any questions or would like further details about the Workshop. We look forward to seeing you there! And, in particular, meeting with you afterwards. Plus (no pun intended), for Cyberinquirer subscribers only, the first cocktail is on me. Just flip an email and let me know you’re coming.

Rick

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With the help of our readers, Cyberinquirer has again been named as one of LexisNexis’s Top Insurance blogs 0f 2011. We are obviously flattered, particularly in view of the quality of the other blogs selected to this august list.  It shows that people are reading what we have to say. And that, perhaps, they are interested in what we have to say. We sure hope that to be the case. We love thinking, reading and talking about tech, privacy and cyber related issues (yeah, admittedly we’re geeks).  And we hope that you, our readers, gain from our insights, even if you don’t always agree with them.

So now that we’ve been recognized by LexisNexis for the second straight period, maybe some of you, our readers, will be more comfortable authoring a piece we can post. Remember, this blog is open to all relevant, responsible submissions, be they articles, commentaries, or just comments on something we have said that strikes a chord.  If you’ve got something to say that may be of interest to others in the community, email it to me at rbortnick@cozen.com and I will get back with you promptly. We strive to publish fresh, interesting content on a regular  basis, but its not always easy, as we do maintain law practices. And have other commitments. So flip your authored pieces. We’d actually appreciate it.

Needless to say, we couldn’t have done this on our own. So the honor is not just for us, but for you too. Thanks.

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In a prior post (here), we discussed the frequency of cyber thefts in the hospitality industry in 2009. We have a decent idea of how many of you read that article. For those of you who haven’t, here’s my topic sentence: “38% of the credit card hacking events in 2009 involved the hospitality industry.” Yep. 38%.

And guess what? The hospitality industry remained a high-level target in 2010. Alright, if you’re connected to the hospitality industry, you probably knew that already. But what you might not realize is that you’re not out of the clear. And, things may be getting worse as  the frequency of cyber criminality grows, and as the perpetrators become more sophisticated and cyber attacks propagate (more on that below).

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The following article was written by my good friend, Scott Godes, a policyholder attorney with Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, D.C., and first appeared on his personal site, Corporate Insurance Blog. Cyberinquirer neither ratifies nor necessarily agrees with the opinions stated below, which are Scott’s exclusively and not those of Cyberinquirer or Dickstein Shapiro. Responsible comment will gladly be published (promptly…). Please feel free to forward them to me at your convenience.

Rick Bortnick

On October 27, 2011, CNN.com posted:

A massive cyberattack that led to a vulnerability in RSA’s SecurID tags earlier this year also victimized Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other big-named companies, according to a new analysis released this week.

The Krebs On Security blog posted:

Security experts have said that RSA wasn’t the only corporation victimized in the attack, and that dozens of other multinational companies were infiltrated using many of the same tools and Internet infrastructure.

This is in line with comments from others, including this quote from Digital Forensic Investigator News, that “2011 has quickly become the year of the cyber attack.“  Would your insurance policies cover those events?  Beyond the denial of service attacks that made news headlines, a shocking “80 percent of respondents” in a survey of “200 IT security execs” “have faced large scale denial of service attacks,” according to a ZDNet story.  These attacks and threats do not appear to be on a downward trend.  They continue to be in the news after cyberattacks allegedly took place against “U.S. government Web sites – including those of the White House and the State Department –” over the July 4, 2009 holiday weekend.  The alleged attacks were not only against government sites; they allegedly included, “according to a cyber-security specialist who has been tracking the incidents, . . . those run by the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, The Washington Post, Amazon.com and MarketWatch.” Themore recent ZDNet survey shows that a quarter of respondents faced denial of service attacks on a weekly or even daily basis, with cyberextortion threats being made as well.

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Its not often that worlds collide or that interests converge into one amorphous epiphany. But that’s exactly what happened to me recently, when the Division of Corporate Finance (DCF) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Disclosure Guidance identifying the types of information public companies should consider disclosing about cyber risks and events that could impact their financial statements. Now, the DCF has cautioned that the Disclosure Guidance only represents its own views and “is not a rule, regulation, or statement of the Securities and Exchange Commission.” The DCF also emphasizes right up front that ”the Commission has neither approved nor disapproved its content.” Yeah, right. YOU be an officer or director or officer of a company that does not “comply” with the DCF’s  ”recommendations.”

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Businesses that necessarily require their customers to disclose credit card and personal information, beware.   Just five days ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that claims by class action plaintiffs for ”mitigation damages” arising from alleged negligence and breach of contract were viable.  Anderson v. Hannaford Brothers Co., Nos. 10–2384, 10–2450, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 21239 (1st Cir. Oct. 20, 2011). 

In Anderson, the electronic payment processing  system of a national grocery chain, Hannaford Brothers Co., was breached by hackers in 2007. This resulted in the dissemination of as many as 4.2 million credit card and debit card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes.  Hannaford Brothers was not notified of the breach until February 27, 2008 and subsequently contained the breach on March 10, 2008.  A week later, Hannaford released a statement regarding the breach and announced that over 1,800 cases of fraud resulting from the theft already had been reported. 

Following Hannaford’s announcement, several financial institutions immediately cancelled customers’ debit and credit cards.  Some financial institutions, which refrained from immediately canceling the credit card, monitored the accounts for unusual activity, cancelling the cards, in many cases, without notifying the customer.  Customers who asked that their cards be cancelled incurred fees from issuing banks for the replacement cards. 

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On October 17, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a much-anticipated decision addressing the scope of “Advertising Injury” (“AI”) coverage for patent infringement claims.  Dish Network Corp. v. Arch Specialty Ins. Co., No. 10-1445, __ F.3d __ , 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 20955 (10th Cir. 2011), rev’g, 734 F. Supp. 2d 1173 (D. Colo. 2010).  The court, applying Colorado law, reversed a decision from the District of Colorado in which that court granted summary judgment to the insurers.  In the underlying action, the plaintiff alleged that Dish Network Corp. (“Dish”) had infringed one or more of twenty-three patents by “making, using, offering to sell, and/or selling . . . automated telephone systems, including . . . the Dish Network customer service telephone system, that allow[s] Dish’s customers to perform pay-per-view ordering and customer service functions over the telephone.”  The Tenth Circuit concluded that the record was unclear about how Dish actually used the technologies at issue, but that some of the patent-holder’s most well-known innovations involved interactive call processing. 

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I recently attended a CLE that had a panel of social media experts who were discussing the role of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in litigation. During a lull in the question and answer session, the Facebook attorney quipped: “you know, Facebook has already given you everything that you’ve ask for…” Immediately, the audience lifted their heads from their Blackberries and newspapers and started paying attention after this cryptic remark.

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I. Overview

Canada’s privacy regime can be described as a web of legislation at both the federal and provincial/territorial level. Some commentators express concern that this web has become tangled, lacks uniformity and actually undermines the predictability and consistency that, in their view, would exist under a single (federal) privacy regime. Canada has two primary privacy statutes: the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). The Privacy Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. P-21 (Can.), took effect on July 1, 1983, and imposed certain privacy rights obligations on approximately 250 federal government departments and agencies by limiting the use and disclosure of personal information. The Privacy Act also gives individuals the right to access and, if necessary, correct personal information held by governmental organizations subject to the Act.

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I.                    Introduction

The Internet facilitates the widespread and instantaneous flow of information across international borders.  While the advent of this method of transnational communication has truly created a “global economy,” at the same time, it has engendered problems for companies and their insurers which seek to assess risk and implement information safeguards, particularly in the face of divergent data privacy laws which vary from region to region or may not even exist in certain jurisdictions.  The Asia-Pacific region typifies such a lack of uniformity.  At the same time, the emerging economies in this rapidly growing part of the world have generated promising targets for computer hackers. 

75% of Asia-Pacific enterprises have experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months.  Perhaps not surprisingly, a 2010 study by Symantec reported that almost half of all Asia-Pacific-based businesses (and 67% in Singapore) ranked cyber risk and information security as their top concern—more so than natural disasters, terrorism, and traditional crime combined.  Cyber attacks and data breaches are on the radar of CEOs and risk managers for good reason: the average cost for a large company to remediate a data breach in Australia increased to nearly $2 million in 2010, which is slightly up from 2009.  See Ponemon Institute/Symantec 2010 Annual Study: Australian Cost of a Data Breach (May 2011).  Notwithstanding the prevalence of such attacks, it is far more likely that a cyber security program is managed as a part of a company’s traditional business risks, with traditional coverages being contorted to cover various components of cyber risk (i.e. property loss, liability to third-parties, business interruption, etc.), rather than by way of a dedicated cyber-specific insurance program.  Still, in light of recent developments, it is virtually certain that companies soon will begin looking to transfer such risk via more efficient and targeted technology insurance forms and policies.   

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Doug Pollack of IDExperts recently published a blog post on cyber insurance that caught my eye. Insofar as IDExperts is a respected provider of cyber breach response services, I assumed the article would address technical issues. Upon reading the piece, however, I was disappointed to find that the article addressed insurance-related matters, including criteria for the selection of insurance products and programs, a topic typically the province of risk managers, brokers, underwriters and lawyers. Hmmm…

At the outset, the article addresses technical issues, as the author correctly suggests that “privacy, compliance and legal officers should work closely with their risk manager to ensure that the organization is getting a policy that meets its needs.” Having hooked me with that truism, I was looking forward to reading on. But that is where the technical commentary (and our common perspective) ends. From there, the author moves on to express his views (and, in my counter-view, misconceptions) on cyber insurance products and how they should operate.

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First published on September 22, 2011 at e-Discovery Law Review
Monetary sanctions, attorneys fees, and adverse inference jury instructions are the more common type of sanctions imposed on litigants for the spoliation of evidence, or not producing relevant documents. Recently, however, a court has increased the severity and impact of sanctions by applying them not only to current litigation, but also to a party’s future litigation, with the effects lingering for years to come.

The Underlying Suit

“Any competent electronic discovery effort would have located this email.” These words were written in an opinion by a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of Texas in Green v. Blitz U.S.A., Inc., No. 2:07-CV-372 (E.D. Tex., Mar. 1, 2011) Green involved a product liability suit in which the requirement of a flame arrester was in dispute. The jury returned a defense verdict, and the plaintiff collected a low settlement amount as part of a high-low settlement agreement. During discovery in a subsequent case with the same defendant and plaintiff’s counsel, counsel learned of documents that were not produced in Green. The plaintiff then filed a motion for sanctions against the defendant in Green and a motion to re-open the Green case. While the court denied the motion to re-open because the statute of limitations had expired, the court did impose sanctions for the discovery abuse.

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Data security breaches pose a serious threat to a corporation’s financial stability as well as to its credibility in the marketplace. Most notably, the 2007 TJX data security breach, where 45 million credit card and debit card numbers were stolen, cost the company over $4 billion. For many corporations, the solution is to purchase a cyber liability insurance policy, which provides insurance coverage in the event of such a breach.

The risk of data security breaches has also affected students of universities throughout the nation. In June of last year, Cornell University officials informed 45,000 members of the school’s community that their personal information, including their names and social security numbers, was stolen after a University-owned laptop was stolen. Due to such breaches, college officials nationwide have begun purchasing cyber liability insurance policies to offset the financial burdens of a data security breach.

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In addition to being a trademark geek, I could be accurately accused of also being a tech geek. A “geek” is someone who loves using, and helping other people use, technology to help simplify his or her life. Best Buy, capitalizing on this endearing term for electronic lovers, created the Geek Squad, a tech support service. Their distinctive orange and black cars marked with their trademarked logo can be called out to provide in-home support or they are just a phone call away to help you with your technological needs.

There’s not too many other words other than geek that convey the nerdy type of people who love technology, but Best Buy is taking action against others who use “geek” for this purpose in their slogans.  In a recent lawsuit against Newegg.com, Best Buy claimed trademark infringement over Newegg’s slogan “Geek On,” saying that the similarity between the motto, in addition to using orange and black in their logo, breaches their rights.  And this is neither the first, nor the last, time that Best Buy will sue companies over this issue.

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During the last decade, individuals and business have changed the way they manage their data by moving this data management offsite – otherwise known as cloud computing. This differs from the old model of information management that, more or less, mirrored the pre-computing era, meaning that an employee’s file might be kept in a cabinet in a Human Resources (“HR”) office or stored on a company’s in-house server. With cloud computing, however, that same employee file may be stored hundreds or thousands of miles away from the HR officer who needs to review it – or the IT officer tasked with preserving that data for potential litigation.

As discussed more fully in Rick Bortnick’s prior posts (here and here), cloud computing outsources data and software management, migrating it from the local to the global by providing instant access over the internet. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, cloud computing has five primary characteristics: (1) “on-demand self-service,” or the ability to call up stored data or capabilities as needed; (2) broad network access through a variety of platforms; (3) pooling resources providing “location independence”; (4) “rapid elasticity” in the distribution of computing capabilities, and (5) “measured service,” or service-appropriate control and optimization by the cloud system manager rather than the local user. It is the pooling of resources and the measured service managed by third-parties that pose the greatest risks during e-discovery.
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Faced with revitalizing a deteriorated economy, formulating a national budget, and the aftermath of Osama Bin Laden’s death, President Barack Obama has his hands full. Yet, in the midst of all the issues commanding the White House’s attention, the Obama Administration somehow has found time to address the threats to our nation’s cyber security.

According to Business Insurance, on Thursday, May 12, 2011, the Obama Administration proposed cyber security legislation to improve protection for individuals and the federal government’s computer and network systems. The proposed legislation would address national data breach reporting by creating simpler and standardized reporting requirements for the 47 states that contain such requirements. The proposal would also synchronize penalties for computer crimes with other crimes. Additionally, the government, through the Department of Homeland Security, would become directly involved in assisting the industry as well as state and local governments in policing and enforcing cyber security. The proposed legislation encourages the state and local governments to share information with the Department of Homeland Security about cyber threats or related incidents by providing them with immunity for doing so.  
 
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Following the publication of our original post on the implications of a cyber attack on investors’ securities portfolios (see here), we have been asked by scores of readers whether securities fraud litigation arising from cyber crime has ensued. Not surprisingly, the answer is “yes.”

Indeed, we have located at least two such cases, one a putative securities fraud class action against a payment processing company and the second an SEC initiated action against a private investor. The results may (or may not) surprise you, depending on your perspective of trial courts’ levels of judicial activism and willingness to render substantive decisions at early stages of litigation.

 In re: Heartland Payment Systems, No. 09-1043 (D.N.J. Dec. 07, 2009) remains the paradigm for such litigation. To facilitate its payment processing services, Heartland Payment Systems (“Heartland”) stored millions of credit and debit card numbers on its internal computer network. In December 2007, hackers launched a Structured Query Language Attack (“SQL attack”) on Heartland’s payroll management system. To its credit, Heartland was able to successfully avert the attack before any personally identifiable information was stolen. At the same time, however, the company failed to detect malicious software (“malware”) which had been placed on the network by the SQL attack.  The malware infected Heartland’s payment processing system, ultimately enabling the hackers to steal 130 million consumer credit and debit card numbers.  Heartland did not discover the breach until January 2009, at which time it notified government authorities and publicly disclosed the event.  Over the course of the following month, Heartland’s stock price dropped over $15 per share. Perhaps not surprisingly, shareholder class actions ensued.

In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged that Heartland and its officers and directors had made material misrepresentations and omissions about the December 2007 SQL attack. Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that the defendants concealed the SQL attack and misrepresented the general state of Heartland’s data security.  Plaintiffs further alleged that the defendants’ conduct was fraudulent because they were aware that Heartland’s network had been breached, yet they had not fully remedied the problem Read the rest of this entry »

There have been a recent flurry of blog posts and media stories warning internet users about the potential dangers of posting their whereabouts on social networking sites, as such personal information is being used by opportunists to facilitate crimes. For example, just in the last month, three men in Nashua, New Hampshire allegedly used information they obtained from users’ Facebook status updates to learn when the users would not be home and thereupon broke into their vacant and vulnerable residences. Although Facebook has denied any link between its site and the crimes, the Nashua police believe that detailed information about the posters’ travel plans provided the thieves with sufficient information to know when the homes would be unoccupied.

Of course, the incidence of such crimes has not been widely disseminated through traditional media sources, such as newspapers, radio and television. As such, most Americans are unaware of this increasing phenomena. At the same time, internet users are more widely and more frequently publishing their personal information, including their travel and vacation plans, on social networking and other public sites. Moreover, beyond the routine “tweets” and run-of-the-mill social networking status updates, new applications for cellular phones and PDAs are being created to facilitate geographical updates. These applications such as “Foursquare,” “Gowalla” and “Facebook Places,” enable users to instantly identify their current physical location on the profiles they have created on social networking sites. Needless to say, allowing geographical information to freely be disclosed to the public can provide opportunists with even more accurate information about the whereabouts of their victims and their distance from an unoccupied and vulnerable residence.

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Google, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare—millions of Americans, including myself, depend on these cyber sites as their gateway to information and communication in the outside world.  What we may not realize, or choose to ignore for convenience’s sake, is that this gateway lies on a two-way street. The information that we seek using websites such as Google and what we communicate on Facebook and Twitter provide companies with vital data to better market their products to us.  This use of information is referred to as “data mining. ”

An example of data mining can be seen in the advertisements that pop up on the side of your Facebook home page.  Such ads are often relevant to the information posted on your “Profile” page, such as advertisements promoting products from your college alma mater. 

At the outset, data mining seems like a win-win situation for both the consumer and the seller—the consumer is marketed with a product in which they are seemingly interested and the company has utilized its advertising budget in an informed, cost-effective manner.  At the same time, however, the threat of an invasion of privacy is real and has the attention of members of Congress and federal officials to create legislation regulating the way in which, and the extent to which, our personal information is shared with third parties.

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On July 23, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an important decision in Eyeblaster, Inc. v. Federal Ins. Co., 2010, U.S. App. LEXIS 15152, No. Civ. A. 08-3640, finding concurrent coverage under both a General Liability (“CGL”) insurance policy and a separate Information and Network Technology Errors and Omissions Liability (“E&O”) policy in circumstances where an online marketing company installed software on a consumer’s computer system, allegedly corrupting the computer’s software operating system.

Eyeblaster Inc. (“Eyeblaster”), the policyholder, is a company that creates, delivers and manages online interactive advertising. For the period December 5, 2006, to December 5, 2007, it was insured under two concurrent policies issued by Federal Insurance Company (“Federal”): (1) a CGL policy covering occurrences which cause damage to tangible property, and (2) an E&O policy which covered claims for financial loss caused by a wrongful act in connection with a product’s failure to perform its intended function or serve its intended purpose, resulting in damage to intangible property. As to the latter policy, intangible property included software, data and other electronic information. Both policies were “duty to defend” forms.

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Interviewing for your first job as a teenager is as exciting as it is intimidating. Thoughts of what to do with your first paycheck consume your mind as you rehearse your best “do-you-want-fries-with-that” smile. The interview proceeds flawlessly and you start to count the dollar signs as you await the job offer. But imagine your surprise when you are informed that you did not get the job because your background check revealed that you are over $75,000 in debt and five years behind in your child support payments for your eleven year old child…a terrifying thought considering you are only 16 years old.

Adults aren’t the only victims of identity theft. Child identity theft is an increasing and understated crime. A child’s Social Security Number (“SSN”) is the perfect target, as the theft typically goes undetected until years after the crime has taken place. Indeed, the crime might not be discovered until the rightful owner/victim uses his or her SSN for the first time years later. This revelation often occurs when the victim applies for his or her first job or financial aid before college.

The scheme works as follows: businesses are using various techniques to search the Internet for dormant SSNs. These numbers often belong to long-term inmates, dead people or children. Obtaining them is not as difficult as one may think, as SSNs are distributed systematically depending on age, geographical location and when the number is issued. Once it has been determined that no one is actively using the number to obtain credit, the numbers are offered for sale.

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We’ve all heard the story of the clerk at the local gas station who was double-swiping credit cards in order to make fraudulent copies. Online banking, restaurants, clothing retailers…every industry is potentially a target. Yet the industry that was the subject of more credit card thefts than any other sector in 2009?  Hotels.

To the point, SpiderLabs (an affiliate of Trustwave, a data-security consulting firm) has published a study which reports that 38% of the credit card hacking events in 2009 involved the hospitality industry.  Over one-third of all thefts of credit card numbers occurred at hotels. Much to my surprise, given the wealth of reporting on the subject, the financial services industry lagged well behind at a comparatively minor 19%. Retail followed at 14.2% while restaurants and bars were fourth at 13%.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, as my own credit card number was stolen several years back while i was staying at a business travelers’ hotel in New York City. I had gone to the City for a Cinco de Mayo event sponsored by a major international insurer. Several days later, I received a call from my credit card company asking if I had bought gasoline on Long Island or a $5000 television at a big box retailer. While I do buy gasoline, I hadn’t been on Long Island. And while I certainly would have loved a $5000 television (or, for economy’s sake, something less pricey), I hadn’t bought that either. The conclusion was simple: my credit card number had been stolen when I used it at the New York hotel.

So, why hotels? According to security analysts, they’re generally easy targets. The large chain hotels may employ sophisticated security technology or other protections. Or they may not. In either case, how about smaller or private owned, non-chain hotels? The next time you check into a hotel, ask what security methods they use to protect credit card information. You probably won’t like the answer. The credit card number that you provide at check-in may sit in a folder or a file maintained right at the front desk. Who would prevent someone from simply lifting the file? Especially in the middle of the night. The single desk clerk on overnight duty?

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His name is Ghyslain Raza, but you may know of him as “Star Wars Kid”, a portly 15-year-old student at a Quebec private high school who had filmed himself wielding a mock light saber, pretending to be a Star Wars character in combat. The two-minute video was supposed to be private, but he left it lying around at his school where three students, who did not know the teenager, came across the video, posted it on the Internet on April 14, 2003, adding a message inviting people to make insulting remarks about the clip.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t just his friends who found the footage so amusing. The video went ‘viral’. One Web log that posted the video was allegedly downloaded 1.1 million times, and by October 2004 one Internet site dedicated to the video had recorded 76 million visits. According to UK marketing firm The Viral Factory, it became the most downloaded video of 2006. So mortified was the teenager that he dropped out of school and finished the semester at a psychiatric ward. According to the student, “It was simply unbearable, totally. It was impossible to attend class.”  More than 35 other revised versions of the video clip, created by other people, have found their way to the Internet, with additional sound and visual effects.

This is an extreme but far from unique example of the devastation wrought by cyber-bullying, the term given to internet conduct in which students harass other students by e-mail and on the internet. Given the potentially devastating consequences of cyberbullying, should schools have the power to discipline their students engaging in this form of harmful conduct?

A major issue confronting school boards is that cyberbullying usually does not take place at school, although its effects can later reverberate among students during school hours. Students may post offensive material from home, or other times outside of school hours, but the targets are fellow classmates. Is it appropriate for a school board to discipline a student for posting such material simply because the postings are being accessed by other students at school or target other students?  At the same time, with power comes responsibility – if school boards have the power to discipline students for their behavior outside of school, are schools then to be mandated with the responsibility to essentially monitor and censor the world-wide web? Just how far should a school board’s jurisdiction extend regarding inappropriate off-school student e-conduct?

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