Expert Witnesses Describe Negligence in Data Breach Incidents

When a company faces a data breach, it often must defend against the problem. However, it is the clients and customers of the business that suffer harm and damaging injuries of various types from the breach. The negligence in the data breach is how monetary awards transfer to the victims. It is important to understand what a data breach is, how it affects the company and why litigation occurs through a breach. Often, it is the expert witness that has the task of describing these issues and unraveling any confusion surrounding the subject matter.

What Is a Business Data Breach?

Information stored within a company usually sits within hard drives inside a facility’s walls. These may have protection, and they could remain separate from networked computers as a backup. However, the primary drives are in computer or servers connected to company computers

in some manner. The data that transfers, copies and moves from one location to another may face interception from a hostile user on the outside or a hacker. Many companies employ a legitimate hacker to test defenses, but it is when the company does not apply reasonable measures and protocols per these weak points that the business may become liable for damages to those affected negatively.

Data Breach Risks

When the data within a company is at the mercy of a hacker that may reveal or steal confidential information, the company may place clients and customers at risk of danger. Injury to financial, economic and personal matters may happen once the individual discloses these details. For some companies, the breach to incur severe monetary losses. If the person steals the information instead of copying it, others are often affected negatively immediately. This could lead to stolen trade secrets, secret files for projects or ventures or proprietary software. While each has its own risk, the more data stolen or destroyed, the more harm the hacker does to the company.

Personal risk increases when a customer’s details are available to the public. This may include credit card numbers, social security info and home address or phone number. While many may not act on these pieces of data, some may injure or harm the individual for one reason or another. It is less difficult to steal an identity or create a new credit card from the info disclosed. The business may run similar risks in company secrets revealed to the public. This may even include trade secrets of consumable ingredients or processes used to create products. This could leave the company open to attack on various fronts.

Proving Negligence

To show that the company is at fault for the breach, the expert may need to expose the processes the business uses to protect the data from outside access. If these methods are sufficient to safeguard client and customer details from reasonable attempt to infiltrate the system, the company may remain faultless. However, many entities do not take the necessary precautions and measures needed to keep these pieces of information protected from someone with minimal hacking skills. Some do not even employ outside assistance to test the vulnerabilities of the networked system. By exposing this, the expert may demonstrate to the courtroom that the company is negligent in safeguarding the clients and customers from a data breach.

Pursuing legal action against the company may lead to severe economic hardship, but those negatively affected by the breach need compensation to recover from the disaster. Others may only need a remedy in protecting identities or credit details from the public. By using the company resources, it is possible to ensure that customers and client exposed by the data breach are able to recover appropriately. The expert may increase the chances of this recovery through his or her skills in the courtroom. Presenting testimony may damage the reputation of the company, but it is important to prove negligence in these situations.

The Testimony of the Expert in Data Breaches

Negligence is often difficult to prove, but by the expert’s analysis of the network, he or she may easily discover that the company did not employ the reasonable precautions. Once complete, the expert may significantly increase chances of success in a data breach.

Provided by HG.org

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer.