When the economy is down, there is a trend to see more lawsuits. Some are to right wrongs, but a frightening number are frivolous lawsuits that are filed with the intent to make money from an incident.
Non-compliance with a law or industry requirement sets the stage for a negligence lawsuit. In the realm of Information Security compliance, you are “guilty until proven innocent” by the very nature of having to prove you did everything correctly.
I recently wrote about a new Massachusetts law (201 CMR 17.00: Standards for The Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth). If you are unfamilar with it, here is an interesting flier about the new legislation. With this new law and a weakening economy, they together create a “perfect storm” for frivolous lawsuits against businesses. The best protection is clearly taking preventative steps to both become compliant and to maintain compliance.
If you would like to learn more about how to protect your business, please feel free to e-mail me at tcornelius@iSecurityPolicy.com and I will be more than happy to help answer any questions you may have. You can always go to www.iSecurityPolicy.com to read in greater detail about other Federal and state Information Security laws and what those mean to you and your business.
Don’t get caught in the storm—plan ahead and be safe!
"frivolous" really needs to be defined!
Posted by: Dentist Seattle | December 10, 2010 at 12:56 AM