Good day to you,

I want us to take a look at this issue because I had conversations with a few business owners at a recent conference and they were not aware of the laws of their state nor the impact it has on them as a business. So once again here is one of my education and awareness questions here on LinkedIn and I hope we can get some good feedback and input on it. Please keep in mind that the purpose of these questions is to build education and awareness on the subject so any referencing materials, links and verification is always valuable.

There are over 48 states in the US to date that have enacted a breach notification law and while I do believe that this is a flaw in the system for each to have its own, it’s a good start in the process. Maybe soon we’ll see this falling under one structure for effective governance. I believe we should have one national law that covers everyone because a data breach is the same no matter where it is done and the impacts can/will be the same across state lines. How it is handled in each state is another story which at most may not be enough for those who lost their data/privacy.

As a security professional, I am very much aware of the many ways in which our private data and information is very carelessly handled by many organizations but that is not the issue here, I want this to be about the laws and helping people to understand the need for knowing and protecting themselves, their customers and clients.

So, Do you have a breach notification law is in your country/state, do you know what it means and how are you affected by it.

Are SMB omitted from these laws and how do they feel about the financial backlash of the issue.

Do we know and understand of the recent laws of and around data security and the financial effects of it?

US State Security Breach Notification Laws as of December 16, 2008

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/cip/priv/breachlaws.htm

Let us take this opportunity to build on these key issues as people need to understand what it really means for them. Know your technology/security/privacy laws.

Thank you and have a great day,

~Brett A. Scudder~

The IT Security Attaché

I posted this on LinkedIn here http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/447971-3071950 for a broader visibility from the business professional’s community. More feedback and input will be found there as well.