Data Breach Litigation: Who’s Gonna Get It? Will it be Yahoo! (or Verizon)?

Below is a post that I wrote in 2011, back when we thought we were in the middle of the “Year of the Data Breach.” We weren’t — not even close. Yesterday I read an article referencing the Ford Pinto and the infamous cost-benefit analysis memo that led to the jury sending “the message” to Ford so I thought of re-sharing my golden oldie.

Now, here is the interesting part. Yahoo! has been in the final states of a deal to sell itself to Verizon for $4.8 billion and, if this were to happen, that means that Verizon would be inheriting the fallout from the massive Yahoo! 500,000,000 record data breach. So, it may not be Yahoo! that gets it — it may be Verizon so let’s see how this all plays out and whether the purchase price stays at or above $4.8 billion.

Here is my old post: Data Breach – Who’s Gonna Get It?

The article I read yesterday: Sad reality: It’s cheaper to get hacked than build strong IT defenses

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Shawn Tuma (@shawnetuma) is a business lawyer with an internationally recognized reputation in cybersecurity, computer fraud and data privacy law. He is a Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Partner at Scheef & Stone, LLP, a full-service commercial law firm in Texas that represents businesses of all sizes throughout the United States and, through its Mackrell International network, around the world.