Ballard Spahr's Privacy and Data Security Practice Leader Authors Book on Cyber Litigation

A water-processing plant held hostage by hackers demanding ransom or else they’d contaminate a major city’s drinking water. A third U.S. state passing a data privacy law, with 25 others considering similar legislation. Some 3,950 data breaches in 2020 and a 485 percent increase over the past year in ransomware attacks. As cybersecurity, data privacy, and the appropriate safeguarding and handling of data dominate the headlines, trusted answers become more important each day.

Philip N. Yannella, practice leader of Ballard Spahr’s Privacy and Data Security Group, has written Cyber Litigation: Data Breach, Data Privacy & Digital Rights, now available through Thomson Reuters. The book examines threshold legal issues such as Article III standing for privacy violations and the meaning of “reasonable” data security. The book tracks the case law across the U.S. that is shaping the contours of data breach, wiretap, drivers' information, online tracking, biometric, and video privacy litigation—among others—while exploring emerging areas of digital rights litigation such as website accessibility and webscraping litigation.

“Cyber litigation is one of the fastest-growing areas of civil litigation in the United States,” Mr. Yannella said. “What we thought yesterday doesn’t appropriately inform an adequate approach for today, and certainly won’t for tomorrow. With this book, my aim is to help data privacy professionals and generals counsel be as poised and prepared as possible.”