General Counsel’s Guide to Cybersecurity: Protecting Business Data and Client Information

Cybersecurity is an increasing focus of corporations, large and small. Cyberattacks aimed at assessing, changing, taking advantage of, destroying, or deleting sensitive business and personal information can ruin the reputation of a company and even put it out of business. Business and legal challenges include analyzing the steps to protect your business from attacks and safeguarding your company’s and your clients’ confidential information.

What Laws Protect Corporations When It Comes to Data Protection?

Staying on top of the privacy legal landscape is challenging. There is no single primary data protection law in the U.S. Instead, there are hundreds of laws at the federal and state levels. Many of the federal laws are industry-specific. Perhaps among the most well-known are the Gramm Leach Bliley Act governing financial institutions and The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act governing the privacy of medical records. Other federal laws include the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the collection of any information from a child under the age of 13 online and from digitally connected devices, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student records. These are but a few of the many federal laws governing specific industries.

In addition to federal laws, state laws impose obligations and restrictions regarding the collection, use, disclosure and security of all types of sensitive information. Social security numbers, driver’s license information, television viewing habits, court information, and various types of financial and tax records are protected by most states.

In the face of the overwhelming plethora of laws and regulations, how do you protect your business from cyberattacks, and comply with privacy laws and regulations to protect your business data and client information?

Three Key Roles for a General Counsel In Securing Data Protection

Below are three key ways that One Oak Legal can help you with our data protection and  General Counsel services.

1. Reviewing the current state of internal compliance with federal and state data protection laws.

All company operations should be reviewed in connection with the myriad federal and state data protection laws to determine the level of company compliance. An enterprise-wide audit will help company leadership understand where the company might be at risk for privacy breaches, as well as subsequent lawsuits and negative media attention.

2. Data protection governance should be established by developing privacy and security programs, procedures, guidelines, training materials, and audit procedures.

All businesses, large and small, should have basic security policies and practices to safeguard data. This includes creating appropriate internet use guidance and internal rules of behavior for protecting customers and other vital data. A training program for employees is critical. An audit plan should be in place to evaluate ongoing compliance with the company’s security policy and practices.

3. Developing An Incident Response Plan

Formal response plans are critical to minimizing a breach should one occur. A strong and robust plan will include such things as developing an incident response policy; creating an incident response team; and developing a communication plan that includes employees, customers and the media.

Contact Our Team Today

Cybersecurity should always be a top-of-mind issue for businesses, both to protect their own information and that of their customers. Contact us today and let our team develop a plan to protect you.