Cybersecurity And Stock Plan Professionals

Most companies’ stock plans are administered with the help of third-party service providers, which collect, receive, transmit or otherwise store vast quantities of employees’ personally identifiable information (PII), including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, next of kin, marital status, etc. Some current contracts with service providers do not contain specific requirements for how the service providers must secure and maintain the privacy of the company’s PII, which may mean that the company has no oversight as to what its service providers are doing with the information. Other agreements may address the issue of security, not the issue of who would be responsible for the costs and damages of a breach (or worse, place that responsibility on the company).