Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cybersecurity
    • Networking

    Stiffer Fines, Safer Data

    By
    Larry Dignan
    -
    June 19, 2006
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Enterprises that dont protect customers personal information should be hit in their wallets. Maybe then, lax corporate security practices will improve. How these penalties get levied will be subject to debate, but its becoming apparent that something dramatic needs to happen, and money talks.

      How much is personal data worth? The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing two class action suits after personal information on 26.5 million veterans was stolen from an employees home.

      Plaintiffs of the larger of the two suits said on June 6 the VA “flagrantly disregarded the privacy rights of essentially every man or woman to have worn a United States military uniform” and are seeking $1,000 in damages for each person listed in the stolen database. Add it up, and thats damages of $26.5 billion. Ouch.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifThe Secretary of Veterans Affairs announces new security measures following the theft of personal information on 26.5 million veterans. Click here to read more.

      The thrust of the suits is to force the VA to handle veterans personal information properly. “The thousand dollars is there because its available and its a hammer,” Douglas Rosinski, the plaintiffs attorney in the larger of the two cases, told eWeek.

      However, the suits were filed under the U.S. Privacy Act, which applies financial penalties to data breaches for government agencies but doesnt have any impact on the corporate world. We believe that hammer should be available to victims of corporate data loss without penalty caps.

      To understand how information security got to this point, lets examine what so far hasnt prodded enterprises to be more secure: an alphabet soup of regulations, bad press from data breaches and the occasional decline of share prices.

      The bottom line: Playing nice just doesnt get corporations to encrypt data, keep personal information off laptops and keep tabs on who has access to what data. In addition to the VAs mishap, the YMCA reported that a laptop containing the customer records of approximately 65,000 individuals was stolen sometime in May.

      Further, Hotels.com and auditors at Ernst & Young are warning consumers of an incident that may have exposed the personal data of roughly 243,000 customers of the online travel site.

      The data breaches never seem to end. The cure could be financial penalties. One such example came in January. The Federal Trade Commission levied $15 million in fines against ChoicePoint, an aggregator of consumer data whose lax procedures exposed the personal information of 163,000 individuals to fraudsters. While that fine is a decent start, it amounts to only half of ChoicePoints net income for the quarter ended March 31.

      Perhaps a better benchmark is the $1,000 per person sought in the VA suits. Under that benchmark, ChoicePoint would have been fined $163 million. Thats a penalty that would hurt—and send a message.

      Tell us what you think at eweek@ziffdavis.com.

      eWeeks Editorial Board consists of Jason Brooks, Larry Dignan, Stan Gibson and Scot Petersen.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzers Weblog.

      Larry Dignan
      Business Editorldignan@ziffdavisenterprise.comLarry formerly served as the East Coast news editor and Finance Editor at CNET News.com. Prior to that, he was editor of Ziff Davis Inter@ctive Investor, which was, according to Barron's, a Top-10 financial site in the late 1990s. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×