25 Nov LabMD CEO Speaks About FTC Legal Battle
Michael was interviewed, drop by the post and listen to the interview here
After seven contentious years, LabMD won a major victory in its legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission. But CEO Michael Daugherty says his recent triumph could be short-lived, and he’s hoping – long term – that he case shines a new light on FTC’s data security enforcement practices.
The FTC needs to “stop its mentality” that an alleged data security incident potentiallyposing harm to consumers, such as identity theft, is the same thing as the agency showing evidence that an actual breach occurred and caused real injury to individuals, he says in an interview with Information Security Media Group.
The FTC should “go after places where things actually did happen, and communicate more proactively with the community in the private sector about what the [FTC] expectations are” for the data security practices of companies, especially in the healthcare sector.
“I don’t find the knowledge of investigators at FTC evident at all in technology; they’re just lawyers out to enforce,” he says. There’s also a “very big cultural difference” between the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services, which enforces the HIPAAsecurity and privacy rules, especially when it comes to the willingness of HHS to collaborate with entities in the healthcare community about data security matters, he says.
“This [difference] has to change because it will not help medicine, it will not help improve cybersecurity,” he says. “It actually hurts the [FTC] and its credibility.”
To read the rest of the post and to listen to the interview, click here
