In the News: Lauren Godfrey Published in The Legal Intelligencer on Strengthening Cybersecurity Through Data Hygiene
Constangy Cyber Team partner Lauren Godfrey authored an article for The Legal Intelligencer examining the issue of email cyberattacks and how businesses should address the issue. Specifically, she implored companies to go beyond simply trying to keep criminals out by also focusing on good data hygiene to ensure sensitive or personal information is not being stored unnecessarily in user accounts if they are unlawfully accessed.
Lauren clarified that data hygiene refers to the practice of maintaining clean, accurate and well-managed data. For business emails, this looks like regularly updating passwords, removing outdated or unnecessary data, organizing inboxes, managing contacts and ensuring that sensitive information is handled appropriately. Good data hygiene reduces exposure to phishing attacks, limits the retention of sensitive data, improves detection of unauthorized access, strengthens access controls, minimizes the impacts of breaches and enhances compliance and risk management.
“What may start out as an investigation into how a criminal was able to access a business’s email tenant can end in consumer and regulatory notifications, as well as litigation,” she said. “In an era where privacy and the security of personal information is under scrutiny and where email-based attacks continue to evolve, prioritizing data hygiene is not just a best practice—it is essential to cybersecurity.”
To read the full article online with a subscription, click here.
Lauren D. Godfrey is a partner and member of Constangy's Cyber Team, who holds the CIPP/US and CIPP/E credentials and guides clients through data security incidents; helps them develop privacy, incident response and information security policies, as well as comprehensive governance and response plans; reviews contracts for privacy law compliance; assesses notification obligations; and assists with external communications.
