Cybersecurity Law

Introduction

In recent years, cybersecurity has become not only a rapidly growing industry, but an increasingly vital consideration for nearly every company and government agency in the United States. A data breach can lead to high-stakes lawsuits, significant business disruptions, intellectual property theft, and national security vulnerabilities. Just ask any executive from Sony, Target, Home Depot, or the scores of other companies that experienced costly data breaches or the top officials at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which suffered a breach that exposed millions of federal workers' highly confidential security clearance applications. In short, it is abundantly clear that companies, governments, and individuals need to do more to improve cybersecurity.

Many articles and books have been written about the technical steps that are necessary to improve cybersecurity. However, there is much less material available about the legal rules that require – and, in some cases, restrict – specific cybersecurity measures. Legal obligations and restrictions should be considered at the outset of any cybersecurity strategy, just as a company would consider reputational harm and budgetary issues. Failure to comply with the law could lead to significant financial harms, negative publicity, and, in some cases, criminal charges.

Unfortunately, the United States does not have a single “cybersecurity law” that can easily apply to all circumstances. Rather, the United States has a ...