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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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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For those captivated by recent events in astronomy, parallels can be drawn between the recent landing of NASA’s rover Curiosity on planet Mars and the public discourse on data security in Canada. With the distinction that one is effectively equipped with the right budget and tools to achieve its actual objective, both have come a very long way, both have managed to blaze through layers of clouds, both seek to secure ingredients essential to life, and both are now aimlessly wandering about unchartered territories.

A decisive factor in Barrack Obama’s 2008 political campaign was the extensive use of individual, thin sliced consumer data to send highly tailored messages to gain political support. Within 13 years, Google has become the most valuable brand in the world through the aggregation of vast amounts of data including search data, or data held in Gmail accounts. This information is then used to create an advertising cruise missile, which is much more efficient than the old method of pattern bombing.

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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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A quick google search will reveal thousands of hundreds of thousands of hits for the term cyberstalking. Indeed, as of today, there are over 900,000 posts where the word is used. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the listings involve teen cyberbullying and child protection issues. There are also large numbers of celebrities who are cyberstalked or otherwise harassed. Beyond juveniles and celebrities, the most frequently stalked demographic are 18-32 year old females, a cohort to which some of our own bloggers (and co-publishers) belong. Curiously, reports indicate that more and more women are also the cyberstalkers, not just the victims. Anecdotal stories suggest many of these women are married but unhappy with their lives.

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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 US and Australia have a longstanding agreement to back each other up in case of physical enemy attack, but now have moved that agreement to the arena of cyber-attack as well. With Australia’s history of cyber-attacks well known, such as an attack two years ago that brought down Australia’s Parliament’s website, the country cannot afford to ignore cyber security any longer.

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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 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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On May 8, 2012, the New York Court of Appeals issued a ruling that merely viewing child pornography on the internet is not a criminal act under the New York Penal Code. The People v. James D. Kent, Index 70, NYLJ 1202552838004, at *1 (Ct. of App., Decided May 8, 2012). The rationale behind the decision of the state’s highest court bears discussion on a much broader scale due to its potential bearing on the legal definitions of procurement, possession and control of digital property.

The key question under consideration was the evidentiary significance of temporary internet files (or cache files) that are automatically created and stored on a the hard drive of a computer while the user is browsing the internet. The Appellate Court concluded that the act of viewing a web image alone does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement.

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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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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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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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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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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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We at Cyberinquirer will be taking a break this weekend. I am heading to NYC for a memorial in honor of our dear friend John Keohane, who perished that awful day at the age of 41. Many of you may have known John from his days with CIGNA, ACE and Zurich. He is still missed by his colleagues, friends and family and always will be. What a tragedy.

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Well, this result seemed almost inevitable.  After all, who gets away with misleading a court?  Right?  But is the amount of the sanction sufficient?  Righthaven was ordered to pay a measly $5,000.  Is that amount really going to punish Righthaven in any significant way?

Righthaven LLC is a copyright holding company, founded in March 2010, which acquires the rights to newspaper content from its partner newspapers (most notably, Stephens Media, which owns the Las Vegas Review Journal). Upon finding that content has been copied to online sites without permission, Righthaven initiates litigation against the site owners, alleging copyright infringement.
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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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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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Whether you own a website where you allow blogs and comments to be posted, or if you are the blogger/poster, listen up. 

For those of you who haven’t heard of Righthaven LLC, they are to the blogging world what editors are to the Law Review world…cite-checking and anti-plagiarism “proponents” (let’s call ‘em that, for argument’s sake).  Righthaven’s been making quite a splash and has gained popularity among news chains since its coming into existence in the spring of 2010.  According to David Kravets’ article, “Righthaven Expands Troll Operation With Newspaper Giant”[1], Righthaven has filed over 180 lawsuits and has settled over 70 of them already.  Its major suppliers of copyrighted material include Stephens Media (owners of Las Vegas Review-Journal), MediaNews Group (owners of San Jose Mercury News and the Denver Post), and WEHCO Media (owners of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Chattanooga Times Free Fress), to name a few.[2] Owned by Net Sortie Systems LLC and SI Content Monitor LLC, Righthaven is the brain-child of Las Vegas-based IP attorney, Steven Gibson.[3] Righthaven’s clients assign their rights in the content to Righthaven, who then sues for copyright infringement.[4] 

In order to analyze the problems faced by the parties to such lawsuits, we’ll have to discuss the U.S. Copyright Act, as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

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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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Lest one question the severity of the evolving challenges in our rapidly growing cyber world, President Obama has crystallized it succinctly: (1) “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation;” and (2) “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.” In other words, President Obama has declared cybersecurity to be a national security priority.

While that’s obviously good news, the follow-up question is “how are we doing in meeting the associated demands?” Regrettably, not so well, it seems.

Speaking before cybersecurity and privacy experts from government, law enforcement, the private sector, academia and privacy and civil liberties groups, President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Cyber Coordinator Howard Schmidt and other Administration officials uniformly acknowledged that far more work needs to be done to protect digital communications and information infrastructure and make it more difficult and costly for cybercrimimals.

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Apparently feeling that they’ve resolved the longstanding issue of illegal immigration and can move on to the next crisis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and the U.S. Justice Department have identified a new enemy in their ongoing stuggle to protect truth, justice and the American way: Internet sites that sell counterfeit goods and pirated movies.

Indeed, just this month, government officials announced that they have shut down nine websites as part of their newly announced initiative, “Operation In Our Sites,” which is intended to protect Hollywood’s intellectual property. Officials estimated that nearly 7 million pirated movies and shows per month were downloaded from the offending websites.

The announcement was held on a soundstage at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. Neither Johnny Depp nor Captain Hook reportedly was present.

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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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Within the last week, two separate intellectual property search engines were launched, each of which has the potential to significantly palliate searches for patents, trademarks and other IP. http://www.wipo.int/wipogold/en/

Specifically, on June 1, 2010, the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) introduced a free online public resource, “WIPO GOLD”  which aims to facilitate universal access to IP information. It promises “quick and easy access to a broad collection of searchable IP data and tools relating to, for example, technology, brands, domain names, designs, statistics, WIPO standards, IP classification systems and IP laws and treaties..” The site also includes a helpful translation option, should users wish to search results in a language other than the default, English. The news report can be viewed here: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2010/article_0018.html

Meanwhile, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) separately announced on June 2, 2010 that it has entered into a “no-cost, two-year agreement with Google to make bulk electronic patent and trademark public data available to the public in bulk form.” Under the agreement, USPTO will provide Google with “existing bulk, electronic files, which Google will host without modification for the public free of charge.” Examples of searchable items include: patent grants and applications; trademark applications and Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) proceedings; and patent classification information. The USPTO and Google also will work together to make additional data available in the future, such as patent and trademark file histories and related data, the office said. The bulk data can be accessed at http://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html.

In other words, as technology moves forward, so too does the ability to research and guard intellectual property ownership and interests… at least in the Western Hemisphere and other WIPO member countries. Now, if only the remainder of the world could come together to unify owners’ capabilities to globally protect their IP rights.

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Odd as it may seem to those of us who live and breathe cyber, tech and privacy insurance, I have heard anecdotally of municipal authorities who profess that their cities and towns do not need to incur the expense of buying these products. “Why do we need them? We don’t operate on the internet,” they reportedly have said.

Well, my response is “why don’t you think you need them?” Do you maintain a bank account? Do you store personally identifiable information about private citizens, whether in your property records, police files, tax databases or otherwise? Are your employees able to access your municipality’s computer systems remotely? Is it really possible that every single piece of information you maintain is recorded on paper and nothing is stored on a mainframe, whether located on- or off-site? Come on. Its 2010. That’s virtually impossible, isn’t it? Haven’t you read my December 23, 2009 post “No One is Immune. Even Government Entities Need Cyber/Tech Insurance?”

Since that posting, additional municipalities have suffered cyber attacks and been the subject of cyber lawsuits.

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As the cyber war of words heats up between the U.S. and China, the rest of the world is taking notice….and proposing action.

Most recently, the head of the United Nations’ communication and technology agency, Secretary General Hamadoun Toure of the International Telecommunications Union, proposed a treaty whereby member countries agree not to precipitate a cyber attack against other member countries. “The framework would look like a peace treaty before a war,” he is reported to have said.

Secretary Toure’s proposal follows a series of concerns expressed at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, including a harsh warning that cyber attacks could amount to a declaration of war. According to Secretary Toure, “[a] cyber war would be worse than a tsunami – a catastrophe.” Because of the potential devastating consequences of a cyber war, the Secretary strongly recommended that countries agree not to harbor cyber criminals and “commit themselves not to attack another.” Of course, nothing is quite as simple as that. For example, John Negroponte, the former director of U.S. intelligence, cautioned that intelligence agencies would “express reservations” about such a treaty. Given the breadth and scope of China’s, Russia’s and other countries’ intelligence operations and their reported limits on information disclosures, Mr. Negroponte’s remarks likely would be echoed by other nations.

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