About Bob Sullivan
Bob Sullivan is a veteran journalist and the author of five books, including New York Times best-sellers Gotcha Capitalism and Stop Getting Ripped Off! He has won the Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award, a Peabody Award, and the Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award. He spent nearly two decades working at MSNBC.com and NBC News, and he’s now a syndicated columnist and frequent TV guest. He is also co-host of the podcast “Breach,” which examines history’s biggest hacking stories, and co-host of the weekly podcast “So, Bob,” which tackles stories about the unintended consequences of technology. His latest book, The Barstool MBA: Why Running a Bar Beats Running to Business School, was published in July 2019.
Articles written by Bob Sullivan
The Fog of Breach
What happens when your company is hacked?These days the “data breach call” has become almost commonplace: You’ve been hacked and customers’ data has been stolen. So what can companies do to manage the risk? Planning beforehand often dictates how big the mess might become. Critical decisions and procedures (who gets the first call; who drives the investigation) should already be in place, and well-rehearsed, when the bad news arrives. Figuring out an incident-response plan during the post-hack chaos—sometimes called the …
What Are the Legal Steps After a Data Breach?
After a data breach, companies must take legal action, including regulatory reporting and attorney general notice, consumer notification for affected records, and cyber insurance reporting. A strong remediation plan requires following notification deadlines with systemic containment and a forensic investigation with data breach counsel to protect attorney-client privilege. A documentation record with evidence preservation helps in anticipation of potential class action exposure. Specific legal …
Pot au Feu
Getting blunt about marijuana lawsIf you are confused by New York’s marijuana laws, don’t feel bad: Even the city’s best lawyers have trouble explaining the convoluted cannabis legal landscape—and more confusion is probably on the way. First, the legal basics. Back in 1977, New York state law decriminalized simple possession. That means New Yorkers who are caught with less than 25 grams of marijuana in a non-public place generally don’t end up with a criminal record; they are issued a $100 fine. For the first …
Is Privacy Dead?
Let’s play a game. You’re a coroner, and your job is to sign the death certificate for privacy. What year do you write on the form? Perhaps 2017, when Flock Safety was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, and law enforcement agencies began using Flock cameras nationwide. Maybe it’s 2015, when the following who’s who list of government and private organizations confirmed they’d been hacked or dealt with the repercussions of recent hacks: The Ashley Madison website, Premera Blue Cross, Anthem, …
How Do Lawyers Help After Data Theft?
Lawyers help after data theft by directing the forensic coordination of the investigation and maintaining the attorney-client privilege of incident documentation. Legal analysis of the findings determines notification requirements, regulatory reporting, and filing a trade secret claim for injunctive relief. Data breach counsel also provides remediation guidance and contract review, acts as the law enforcement liaison, and handles insurance claims. In anticipation of litigation, a litigation …
New York Bankruptcy Filing: Steps To Start
Filing bankruptcy can feel like an abrupt end of a journey. But it doesn’t have to be. “The most common thing people say when they come to see me is, ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting here,’” says Paul M. Hollender of Corash & Hollender, a Staten Island, New York-based bankruptcy lawyer. “But I tell them I am like a tow truck, and they’ve just slid off the road. I pull people out of the mud so they can drive on down the road again.” What Are Common Missteps in the Bankruptcy …
Is Privacy Dead?
Or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Big DataLet’s play a game. You’re a coroner, and your job is to sign the death certificate for privacy. What year do you write on the form? Maybe it’s 2015, when the following who’s who list of government and private organizations confirmed they’d been hacked or dealt with the repercussions of recent hacks: the Ashley Madison website, Premera Blue Cross, Anthem, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House. How about the Sony hack of 2014 or …
Because That’s Where the Data Is
Hacking, and the fear beyond identity theftIf hackers steal your credit card info, they can ruin your day; with your Social Security number, they can wreak financial havoc for years. But if they freeze or steal your computer data, they can ruin your life or threaten your company’s very existence. Identity theft is the digital headache of the 21st century; millions of Americans struggle to recover from the paperwork hassles it brings each year. But 2014 was a migraine. The year was bookended by fallout from the Target credit card heist …
Breaking the Bank
Filing bankruptcy doesn’t have to be the end of the worldFiling bankruptcy can feel like an abrupt end of a journey. But it doesn’t have to be. “The most common thing people say when they come to see me is, ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting here,’” says Paul M. Hollender of Corash & Hollender, a Staten Island-based bankruptcy lawyer. “But I tell them I am like a tow truck and they’ve just slid off the road. I pull people out of the mud so they can drive on down the road again.” More than one million non-business bankruptcy …
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