Extract from Jeffrey Wolff’s article “5 Ways to Protect Sensitive Information From Unauthorized Disclosure”
Sensitive information is everywhere, from clients’ names and addresses to the trade secrets a business relies on to beat its competition. As such, organizations can’t avoid collecting, processing, storing, and transferring sensitive information. But when sensitive information is not properly protected, the consequences can be severe. Unauthorized disclosures of sensitive data can result in financial penalties, lawsuits, reputational harm, loss of business, and more.
Protecting sensitive information during eDiscovery can be especially difficult. This was demonstrated recently in the Sandy Hook court case. While the defendant was on the stand, opposing counsel revealed that the defendant’s legal team had accidentally sent over an entire digital copy of their client’s cell phone, which contained both previously undisclosed information relevant to the lawsuit and privileged information. The lawyers at fault not only hurt their client (and perhaps their own reputations) but also might be disciplined for their mistake and failure to timely rectify it.
How can you avoid similar blunders? That’s what this post is about. We’ll start by covering some basic facts about sensitive information and the rules that require sensitive information to be protected. We’ll then discuss how to determine which information is sensitive and what to do when sensitive information is breached. Finally, we’ll offer five ways you can better protect your organization’s sensitive information.
