Cybersecurity has never been as important as it is today for safeguarding crucial information. This includes information that can easily be used to identify and to compromise the personal details of our lives. Everything from bank account and transactional details to personal milestones, memories and life events are all available to access online. All of these trends are natural consequences of our increasing reliance on the internet and online activities. The sheer amount of personal data that can be retrieved online is staggering…which then begs the question: who or what is protecting all of it?
Does Online Security Exist?
While an easy answer to the question of online security simply does not exist, we can determine the security protocols of many of the online services we use by doing some quick research. The main things to look out for are their terms of use and their privacy policy. These two together are what constitute the core ethos of the company with regards to their users’ privacy and the lengths they are willing to go through to protect it. Outside of that, it’s all about being conscious of what services you use and what information you give up in order to use it. However, despite being careful, there’s no much you can do if the service itself gets breached. In those cases, it’s all about how the company responds to and deals with online attacks.
Unencrypted Personal Information Acquired By Unauthorized Persons
As far as how companies must respond to security breaches, there are laws in place which require them to disclose what happened if the compromised information can jeopardize clients’ personal information and private matters. Specifically, the California data security breach notification law was enacted in 2002 and has been in effect ever since and it requires that companies notify California residents whose unencrypted information was acquired by any unauthorized person. The law is extensive in that it still requires that you be notified even if the information was leaked or hacked. This means that even if a company is not one hundred percent sure if your information was breached, they do still have to notify you so long as there is a reasonable doubt.
California Civil Law Code 1798.82
California’s civil law code 1798.82, while originally enacted only in California, most states have since followed suit by enacting similar laws. In fact, the California data security breach notification law was quite novel and progressive for its time as it deals with issues of cybersecurity and online privacy at a time when those areas were nowhere near as well-developed and intensive as they are today. The intent of this law is simply to ensure that the public remains aware of any successful cybersecurity attacks and to keep companies accountable for their security protocols and measures.
Cyber Security and Online Encryption
Since this groundbreaking law came into effective, there have been many more laws like it added in an effort to stay ahead of the security curve. The importance of strong, online encryption really cannot be understated and it was laws like these that jump started the movement.
At KAASS LAW, we believe your personal information is yours, only. If you have any doubts as to whether or not your personal data was breached, or if you have any questions about what can be done about it, then we encourage you to give us a toll free call at (310) 943-1171 to speak to our California privacy attorneys today. We can walk you through your options and we will always stand by our clients and their security.