Navigating the Legal Aspects of Cyber Incidents: First Steps, Required Disclosures and Notifications, Avoiding Pitfalls

This CLE webinar will discuss the legal risks posed by a cybersecurity or data breach incident. The panel will address the crucial immediate first steps for counsel when a client is the victim of a breach, best practices for guiding clients on their disclosure and notification requirements, and how to avoid common and not-so-common pitfalls.

Cyber incidents and data breaches present a myriad of legal issues for clients across every industry. These issues are complex and overwhelming due to the ever-growing patchwork of breach notification requirements at the state, federal, and international level.

When a breach occurs, clients' key concerns are protecting their data and the company's interests, particularly their reputation. When advising an organization that is dealing with the fallout of a cyber incident, counsel must understand that the potential for investigations by government agencies and private lawsuits is high. Thus, counsel must position their client's response and resolution of the incident as favorably as possible while also preserving documents and managing communications and other potential evidence in anticipation of future investigations or litigation.

It is incredibly important for counsel to be involved early on when a breach occurs because many of the decisions an organization makes during the chaos of a cyber incident will have important legal implications down the road. Counsel must be strategic in preserving the attorney-client privilege and maintaining the confidentiality of service providers engaged to manage the cyber incident. Also, counsel plays a critical role after the resolution of an incident by assessing the effectiveness of the client's processes and programs to guard against the potential for future security incidents.

Listen as our authoritative panel provides guidance for advising and protecting clients on the legal implications of responding to a cyber incident or data breach. The panel will also highlight examples of cyber incident responses that went wrong and the resulting costs to the companies involved.