The Massachusetts data privacy law is in play for me everyday. The state AG has vowed to make an example of the first company that had a data breach. No one has wanted to risk taking her up on the challenge.
We have dealings with the state of Massachusetts that require us to FTP a monthly file to them that contains home addresses and social security numbers. They were mad as hell when we started sending the files encrypted on day 1 of the relationship. They had no clue how to handle it.
Yet as written the law says they could have reported us for non-compliance even though they were the ones telling us to send the files in the clear.
My counterparts in Arizona tell me their state law is a killer.
Maybe all data should be encrypted after all. Is there a way to enforce automatic encryption of data? This way, no one will ever forget to encrypt sensitive data.
Thanks for the comment. Yes: that's what I'd like to see change. I have to say, I haven't noticed moves to make the private sector comply either: I think there we'd be looking at individual law suits or class actions arising from loss or damages rather than fines -- I'm not aware that there are general legislative standards with which private enterprise needs to comply.
You can verify this to make sure it is current, but as of 2011 all state and federal data privacy laws had exceptions to compliance built into them for all levels of government.
A state university recently saw a large data theft. I can promise no one will be punished for it.
The data thefts you mention will at best result in the loss of a job.
If those events happened in the dreaded private sector the companies would be facing fines and lawsuits while some people might be facing jail time.
In the public IT sector they get a big stay out of jail card. So why should they care if there is no threat of punishment?
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