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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Law

Best Practices And The State Of Information Security, Kevin Cronin Jun 2009

Best Practices And The State Of Information Security, Kevin Cronin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The forces of globalization, together with widely available industry standards and best practices, and heightened state legislative activity, are driving the U.S. towards a more unified approach to data security. But the success of this unified approach requires more than free market efficiency and innovation. In order to maintain a state of evolutionary equilibrium in the global information economy, the U.S. must move from a fragmented approach towards data security and privacy standards, towards a more comprehensive set of standards with new penalties and effective enforcement, to better reflect the inherent value of personal data in today's global marketplace.


Patenting Cryptographic Technology, Greg Vetter Jun 2009

Patenting Cryptographic Technology, Greg Vetter

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The policy concerns intersecting patent law and cryptographic technology relate to the technology's beneficial uses in securing information in a commercial and social fabric that increasingly relies on computing and electronic communications for its makeup. The presence of patenting in a technology can impact diffusion of interoperable technology. Standardized embeddable cryptography facilitates its supply. Patent law for several decades has waxed and waned in its embrace of software implemented inventions rooted in abstract ideas such as the mathematics and mathematical algorithms underlying modern cryptography. This article documents the growth of cryptographic patenting. Then, in light of this growth and patent …


The Duty Of Care And The Data Control Systems In The Wake Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Michael R. Siebecker Jun 2009

The Duty Of Care And The Data Control Systems In The Wake Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Michael R. Siebecker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The essay examines the wisdom of exempting small public companies from Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which requires companies to provide management assessment and external auditing of a company's internal control systems over financial data. In particular, the essay questions whether a fiduciary duty of care might require officers and directors to adopt internal control systems, perhaps substantially similar to those envisioned by SOX, even if small public companies were exempt from the ambit of the statute.


The Political Economy Of Data Protection, Peter K. Yu Jun 2009

The Political Economy Of Data Protection, Peter K. Yu

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Information is the lifeblood of a knowledge-based economy. The control of data and the ability to translate them into meaningful information is indispensable to businesspeople, policymakers, scientists, engineers, researchers, students, and consumers. Having useful, and at times exclusive, information improves productivity, advances education and training, and helps create a more informed citizenry. In the past two decades, those who collected or obtained access to a large amount of data began to explore ways to use the collected data as an income stream. Because the then-existing laws did not offer adequate protection for that particular purpose, they actively lobbied for stronger …


Data Devolution: Corporate Information Security, Consumers, And Future Of Regulation, Andrea M. Matwyshyn Jun 2009

Data Devolution: Corporate Information Security, Consumers, And Future Of Regulation, Andrea M. Matwyshyn

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.


Data Collection And Leakage, Philip Howard, Kris Erickson Jun 2009

Data Collection And Leakage, Philip Howard, Kris Erickson

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Every year millions of digital records containing personally identifiable information are exposed. When are malicious hackers to blame, and when is it organizational malfeasance? Which kinds of organizations—private firms, government agencies, or educational institutions—lose the most data? With over 1.9 billion records lost (on average that's 9 records per U.S. adult), a surprising number of breaches can be attributed to organizational practices.


Trade Secrets, Data Security And Employees, Elizabeth Rowe Jun 2009

Trade Secrets, Data Security And Employees, Elizabeth Rowe

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This essay argues that data security is important to the protection of trade secret information, and that trusted employees on the inside pose the biggest threat to the protection of trade secrets. While investments in technical measures such as firewalls and encryption are important, it is also necessary for companies to consider the internal threats from employees when creating corporate security programs. Ultimately, a more comprehensive approach that includes technical and human elements, as well as consideration of inside and outside threats is likely to be more effective in the battle to secure data.


Returning To A Principled Basis For Data Protection, Gus Hosein Jun 2009

Returning To A Principled Basis For Data Protection, Gus Hosein

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Society must remain conscious of both pragmatic and principle-based rationales for information security rules. The identity card debate in the United Kingdom provides an example of exactly why a governmental information security approach that is sensitive to civil liberties would be the best approach to data protection. In contrast, we should be cautious of a balancing test that places security in parity with civil liberties and, therefore, erroneously allows pragmatism to triumph over principle.


Optimal Hackback, Jay P. Kesan, Ruperto Majuca Jun 2009

Optimal Hackback, Jay P. Kesan, Ruperto Majuca

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Professor Jay Kesan from the University of Illinois College of Law, in joint work with Ruperto Majuca of the University of Illinois Department of Economics, argue in favor of legal rules that allow "hacking [data] back" in certain business circumstances. They analyze the strategic interaction between the hacker and the attacked company or individual and conclude that neither total prohibition nor unrestrained permission of hack-back is optimal. Instead, they argue that when other alternatives such as criminal enforcement and litigation are ineffective, self-defense is the best response to cybercrime because there is a high likelihood of correctly attacking the criminal, …


Information Security, Contract And Liability, Jennifer Chandler Jun 2009

Information Security, Contract And Liability, Jennifer Chandler

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Various common provisions in software end user license agreements undermine cyber security. These include anti-benchmarking provisions and broad exclusions of liability. These short comments suggest that courts and legislatures should take steps to limit the enforceability of contractual provisions that undermine cyber security.


Reasons Why We Should Amend The Constitution To Protect Privacy, Deborah Pierce Jun 2009

Reasons Why We Should Amend The Constitution To Protect Privacy, Deborah Pierce

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Threats to consumer privacy are many, and varied. Some threats come from corporate entities such as data aggregators and social networking sites; while others come from panoptics government surveillance systems such as Secure Flight. Not only can the data be compromised, but consumers may be adversely affected by incorrect information in their files. The time may be right to explicitly protect privacy via a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Constitution.


Coding Privacy, Lilian Edwards Jun 2009

Coding Privacy, Lilian Edwards

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Lawrence Lessig famously and usefully argues that cyberspace is regulated not just by law but also by norms, markets and architecture or "code." His insightful work might also lead the unwary to conclude, however, that code is inherently anti-privacy, and thus that an increasingly digital world must therefore also be increasingly devoid of privacy. This paper argues briefly that since technology is a neutral tool, code can be designed as much to fight for privacy as against it, and that what matters now is to look at what incentivizes the creation of pro- rather than anti-privacy code in the mainstream …