Data Security Breaches – State Notification Rules In Transition

Privacy issues remain a constant and complicated concern for most financial services companies. A recent Wall Street Journal article focused on the increasing use of privacy impact assessments to identify issues and minimize liability before the launch of new products or services. High profile data security breaches also seem to be a staple in the daily headlines. 2011 is on track to be the worst year in a decade for security breaches.

The risk of a data security breach at your business or at a third party vendor is always present even with the best risk management program and state of the art security procedures in place. A comprehensive privacy compliance program should include a security breach incident response plan that, among other things, addresses the delivery of notifications to customers impacted by the breach and imposes specific breach response requirements on vendors that maintain or store customer data for your business.