You probably know about the big breaches. JP Morgan Chase. Home Depot. Target. Maybe you even read a few of those juicy emails between Sony executives bashing Angelina Jolie and Will Smith. I can imagine your reaction: “That’s crazy, but what are the chances it happens to me or my little company?”
The chances are much greater than you think. In November, during a data breach and privacy law program in Chicago, I attended a session presented by Wesley Hsu, the executive assistant U.S. attorney who headed up the Sony investigation. Here a few statistics provided by Mr. Hsu that should open the eyes of anyone in business:
Every day, there are twice as many cybercrime victims as newborn babies;
There are 50,000 new victims each hour, 820 new victims each minute and 14 new victims each second;
The total number of estimated cybercrime victims over the past year is greater than the combined populations of the United States and Canada.
This is not a “them” problem or a “later” problem. This is your problem. And to understand the problem, you must first understand its origin. What do cybercriminals want? They want confidential information: credit card numbers; Social Security numbers; log-in passwords; corporate designs; etc. They want whatever you have that someone else might pay money to access/use.
Read the full story in the Knoxville News Sentinel
Chris McCarty a shareholder in our Knoxville office, practices in the areas of employment law, education law and civil litigation. Mr. McCarty handles matters before state and federal courts throughout Tennessee, and has argued before the Tennessee Court of Appeals