The challenges confronting corporate counsel regarding privacy, data protection and cyber security have never been more daunting: dealing with the threat of increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals, responding to data breach incidents, keeping up with a myriad of evolving national and international laws, regulations and industry standards, all while wondering if your data has been targeted by a government surveillance program.

And they’re not letting up in 2014. New online privacy laws in California already went into effect on January 1. In February, the federal government is expected to publish a new “cybersecurity framework” for critical infrastructure in the U.S., and that framework, like it or not, may well set a future de facto standard of care for establishing liability. In addition, in response to the massive retail customer data breach that occurred late last year, Congress may finally pass a national personal data privacy and security law.

Originally published in Arizona Chapter FOCUS - 1Q14.