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Cybersecurity, Identity Theft, And The Limits Of Tort Liability, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Tort law is the best vehicle for allocating the risks and spreading the costs of database intrusion. It can incentivize database possessors (“possessors”) and data subjects to minimize the harm associated with breaches of database security while also balancing each party’s interests. Life is built upon computerized databases and the information of those databases is subject to hackers and other cyber-threats, which can cause catastrophic damage. It is hard to identify hackers; however, a better object for recovery is likely the possessors who fail to prevent or reveal a security breach.

The law governing database possessors’ liability is far from …