Cybersecurity & Privacy Blog

As the Supreme Court revels in its summer hiatus, and the federal government slows to its August halt, here is a status update and forecast on pending data breach litigation: 

Last week the Seventh Circuit reinstated the Neiman Marcus data breach class action, holding that plaintiffs had satisfied Article III’s standing requirements based on at least some of the injuries they alleged. In doing so, the Seventh Circuit became the first federal court of appeals to rule on a challenge to the standing of purported data breach victims in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International, 133 S. Ct. 1138 (2013), and diverged from the growing majority of federal district courts that have held similar allegations are insufficient to confer standing.

Last week, the Eastern District of Louisiana joined the growing majority of district courts around the country that have held increased risk of future identity theft or identity fraud posed by a data breach is not sufficient to confer Article III standing on individuals whose information has been compromised but not yet misused.

On April 29, the Department of Justice published its “Best Practices for Victim Response and Reporting of Cyber Incidents”, which is an excellent, easy to read summary of steps companies can take to protect against cybersecurity incidents 

Cyber insurance
The risk of a data breach now tops the list of concerns of many in-house counsel and C-suite executives. Cyber insurance is an important component in managing this risk and mitigating the damages and loss that follow a data breach.