Dealing with Privacy

Scenario

You are the CEO of a major consumer credit reporting agency that collects and maintains the sensitive personal information, including social security numbers, birth dates, and addresses, of around 150 million people.

One day, you find out that your company has experienced a data breach and that it has been over two months since the system has been hacked. You realize that this breach of privacy is a serious violation of your customers’ trust and could lead to identity theft and financial fraud. You are afraid about how this may affect the reputation of your company. You decide to investigate and plug the hole before sharing the information with the public and affected individuals in particular.

Upon investigation, you discover this happened because of your company’s negligence in installing a software upgrade.

You immediately ask your employees to take adequate security measures, but they fail to protect this sensitive data.

You are now forced to make some tough decisions about how to move forward, including how to address the damage done and how to proceed forward.