It’s Not Just the Regulators You Should Worry About

Breaches will occur. Criminals must only be effective once; we must be effective all the time. Regulators understand this and take it into account when they decide whether to pursue regulatory action.

What’s often overlooked is the likelihood of class action lawsuits even when state or federal regulators choose to not pursue action. Since 2018, there have been numerous class action suits brought against companies that experienced a data breach.  In almost all those cases, courts have supported the plaintiffs’ claims of negligence due to a lack of evidence that the companies implemented measures to reasonably protect customer data.

Common to many of these suits is the allegation of “negligent conduct.”  Plaintiffs claim that these companies did not follow industry standards for protecting customer data including, not implementing proper employee training, failure to timely identify and react to the breach, failure to timely notify customers of the breach and failure to implement measures to identify phishing emails.

Having a structured program that follows a common standard helps your dealership address aspects of data security your customers and the courts expect. Easily demonstrating your processes, procedures and controls reduces the risk of both regulatory action and class action suits. The A2Safe Hub will help you fully document your information security program and easily access all the evidence you need to show you are properly protecting customer private data.