Companies that are subject to the registration and disclosure requirements of the United States Securities Act and Securities Exchange Act face the challenge of complying with a broad variety of detailed regulations addressing their disclosure and reporting obligations. The Securities Exchange Commission recently adopted regulations which will have an impact on publicly traded companies that suffer a data breach. Because the SEC’s standards for disclosure often set a standard for private companies as well, the regulations are likely to have an impact on other companies.
Breach Notifications for the Past 20 Years. Ever since California became the first state to require companies to notify their customers of data breaches in 2003, the time between the date a breach was discovered and the time the breach was reported has been an issue of contention. Early reporting gives consumers a leg up in protecting their personal information, and lets investors, vendors and customers of companies know if key business information has been compromised. At the same time, companies want as much time as possible to investigate a breach, understand what happened, and provide accurate information – companies that give early notice often have to give multiple notices as more information becomes available, and may even find that the original notice wasn’t necessary. Regardless, lawsuits against companies that have suffered data breaches almost universally point to the gap in time between the discovery and notification of a breach.
The SEC Acts. Regulators have stepped in and identified time frames for public notification of a data breach. Most recently, the Securities Exchange Commission issued a final rule that reduces the time for reporting companies (companies whose securities are registered with the SEC) to disclose cyberattacks publicly. As has been widely reported, with some exceptions, a company that is the victim of a cyberattack now