Law Sets New Standards for Data Breach Reporting

Marcos Jimenez and Robert Kline wrote this bylined article on Florida’s new act requiring data protection procedures at virtually every business that acquires electronic “personal information,” calling it “critical that business owners, both in and out of Florida, appreciate the act’s broad definition of ‘personal information.’” The authors noted that it includes everything from Social Security numbers and medical records to Internet identification and warned that, given the law’s penalties for data breaches disclosing this data, “it is critical that businesses develop, document and implement comprehensive policies and procedures regarding the management of consumer records.”