Finding Phone Records: Usually Out of Bounds
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Department of Justice had obtained confidential phone records for more than 20 telephone lines used by the staff of the Associated Press while investigating leaks of classified information. …
IRS Form 990: The Investigator’s Friend
If we had five dollars for every time someone asked us to get hold of someone’s bank accounts (pretty much always against the law and therefore off-limits), we would have enough money to buy a lovely lunch for two.
Sometimes, people who…
Privileges, Immunities, and Good Investigation
What does the Supreme Court’s decision this week about the Privileges and Immunities Clause mean to investigators? That they need to continue having a good national network to help one another. The Court this week upheld unanimously a…
A Cyprus Reminder: For Money and Other Data, There IS No Cloud
Why is it that we would never decide to put $100,000 in the bank and tell people our deposits are “in the cloud,” but we readily do so with data that could be worth many times more than that? This week’s drama in Cyprus, in…
Big Data? Good Investigators Prefer Their Data Small
When you see two big book reviews and an entire special section of The Wall Street Journal devoted to a topic, a curious person should ask: how does this affect me, my family, my business, the world? The book is Big Data: A Revolution that Will…
When Go Turns to Stop in an Investigation
When does green not mean go? As toddlers we drive with our parents and learn that green means go, yellow means caution and red means stop. But then later on, in driving and in life, we learn that green means “go, as long as…”…
The Library’s Hidden Treasure: Librarians
When they’re stuck on a piece of research in my course on fact investigation, I often tell my law students that the loneliest people in the world are waiting to help them: reference librarians. That line came to mind this week after I…
Bare Minimum: How to Make Your Gmail Messages More Secure
Well, another day, another email hacking story. This one involves the Bush clan, with reports that a hacker who goes by the name Guccifer accessed private emails and photographs, telephone numbers and addresses sent between members of the Bush…
Sealed Court Documents During Due Diligence
Over the past few days we’ve dealt with two cases where our clients were deeply invested in the question of whether or not the contents of sealed court documents could be made public. And our answer to both of them was the same: If someone…
Data Breaches in Small Businesses: Safeguarding Credit Card Terminals
What gets less coverage, however, is how often small business owners are the weakest link in an identity theft chain. Certainly big businesses have been called out for serious data breaches, including misrepresenting whether or not their data was encrypted. But, as it turns out, personally taking pains to protect against hackers and identity thieves can all be for naught if thieves are accessing your digital data via the smaller businesses you frequent. This could include your favorite local restaurant, or the neighborhood Mom and Pop bookstore or boutique you proudly support. Take credit card terminals, for example: Small businesses are especially vulnerable to the plethora of ways hackers collect cardholder data via credit card terminals used to process credit card sales.
Here are some ways small businesses can protect their client's data from credit card terminal breaches.
