Anatomy of a Data Breach Investigation: Interview with Alain Sheer, Attorney with the Federal Trade Commission

The following interview was just released by www.BankInfoSecurity.com Click on the title or previous link to read the 32 minute interview. There is also an audio MP3 available at their site but you need a login to download it.

Anatomy of a Data Breach Investigation: Interview with Alain Sheer, Attorney with the Federal Trade Commission
February 27, 2009 - Tom Field, Editorial Director

The Heartland Payment Systems data breach is on everyone's mind, and the case is in the hands now of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) if it chooses to investigate. While the FTC will neither confirm nor deny a Heartland investigation, staff attorney Alain Sheer does offer his insight on:

How the FTC investigates data breaches like Heartland's;

The timeline and milestones of such an investigation;

Details of the CardSystems data breach - which closely resembles Heartland's.

TOM FIELD: Hi, this is Tom field, Editorial Director with Information Security Media Group. We are talking today about data breaches, and we are talking with Alain Sheer, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau for Consumer Protection. Alain thanks so much for joining me today.

ALAIN SHEER: Well thanks for inviting me.

FIELD: Could you tell us a little bit about your role within the FTC and what it is that you actually investigate?

SHEER: Yes. I work in the, as you said, the Bureau of Consumer Protection and particularly in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, which is a separate division within the bureau. Our division does exactly what the name suggests. We are concerned with privacy and identity protection and identity theft, and the work that we are doing, at least my part of our division is doing, is really to investigate data breach matters. And so over the years we have looked at a fairly large number of data breaches involving a number of companies, companies such as PetCo Animal Supplies and Guess Jean and BJ's Wholesale Club and TJ Maxx and Card Systems Solutions and Lexis-Nexis and others. So the work of the division is really directed at trying to address the security of sensitive information of our consumers. (Read whole interview at www.BankInfoSecurity.com)

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