McDonald Hopkins Law Firm Alert: New Massachusetts Data Security Laws Go Into Effect March 1, 2010

CLEVELAND, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Is your company prepared with a compliant security plan? Take the appropriate steps now to avoid incurring significant costs and penalties later.

Nearly every state in the United States has some type of breach notification law should certain personal information ("PI") and data be compromised or stolen. But few states have enacted laws that dictate how that PI and data should be stored and treated in the normal course of business, prior to any data breach. That will all change on March 1, 2010 for any company, organization, association or entity that has any PI of a Massachusetts resident. This includes entities that are not located in or do business in Massachusetts, but simply maintain PI on Massachusetts residents, for instance customers or employees. While not yet tested, it is anticipated that the penalties associated with Massachusetts' breach notification law (MGLA 93H § 1 et seq.), which allows for civil penalties of up to $5,000 for each violation and up to $50,000 for each instance of improper disposal of PI, may be applied to this new law.

After several extensions and revisions, the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR) has published its final rulemaking for 201 CMR 17.00: Standards for the Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth ("Massachusetts PI Standards"), slated to take effect March 1, 2010. The Massachusetts PI Standards are the result of numerous compromises of social security numbers, credit cards, and bank account information affecting several industries and countless innocent individuals. Rather than simply requiring organizations to take certain steps upon the occurrence of a security breach, this law goes several steps further by mandating policies and guidelines relative to the treatment of PI, in an attempt to prevent security breaches altogether.

Click on the link below to read full alert.

McDonald Hopkins Alert – New Massachusetts Data Security Laws Go Into Effect March 1, 2010.

http://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com/alerts/alert.aspx?id=IZDsDSmLskmRQc5bbncFBg

About McDonald Hopkins

With more than 130 attorneys in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, and West Palm Beach, McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm focused on business law, litigation, business restructuring, labor and employment, healthcare, and estate planning. The president of McDonald Hopkins is Carl J. Grassi. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit http://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com.

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