Cyberattack & Data Breach Response

Thompson Hine has a broad range of experience in helping organizations respond to ransomware attacks and data breaches, including the following:

• Advised a chemical sector business on responding to a ransomware attack that compromised the security and confidentiality of its HR data regarding both current and former employees and their dependents and beneficiaries, and assisted with drafting formal data breach notification letters to affected data subjects, notifying consumer reporting agencies and state attorneys general, establishing credit monitoring services, and complying with multiple laws and regulations governing substitute notice via media and website postings.
• Assisted a provider of advertising and marketing services to major energy providers in responding to and mitigating a cyber breach that resulted in large fraudulent payments, including protecting sensitive information from further exploitation and recovering all fraudulent payments.
• Assisted a consumer goods company in investigating and responding to a data breach arising from unauthorized access to and exfiltration of customer data from the company’s third-party e-commerce platform due to compromise of an employee’s account credentials.
• Assisted a global manufacturing company in responding to a ransomware attack that compromised sensitive employee and customer data, and partnered with European Union counsel to facilitate notifications to supervisory authorities pursuant to the EU General Data Protection Regulation and EU Member State law.
• Advised a private sector company with respect to an incident involving the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive employee data, and counseled on the “good faith” exception within certain U.S. state data breach notification laws and on complying with internal investigation and records retention requirements.
• Counseled a health care business associate regarding a technical anomaly within its online patient portal that resulted in unauthorized disclosure of medical records and protected health information, and drafted formal data breach notification communications and reports.
• Assisted an operator of SaaS platform technology service provider serving secondary and post-secondary educational institutions in responding to an intrusion into operating systems potentially exposing personal and competitively sensitive information.
• Assisted a global manufacturing company with its response to the inadvertent disclosure of export-controlled data to foreign nationals, and drafted, prepared and submitted voluntary disclosures to a federal department arising from the same.
• Represented a defense contractor in joint investigation by the Department of Defense and Federal Bureau of Investigation arising from Maze ransomware attack that potentially exposed controlled unclassified information, which resulted in the closure of the federal investigation without adverse action to client.
• Assisted a supply chain defense contractor with its response to a ransomware attack that compromised the confidentiality of sensitive employee data and controlled unclassified information, including drafting and submitting formal data breach notices to impacted individuals and government agencies.
• Counseled a services industry business regarding an Office 365 intrusion that resulted in a malicious actor disseminating fraudulent invoices to customers from a spoofed internet domain.
• Assisted an employee health plan in investigating and responding to a data breach that occurred within a business associate’s information technology environment that resulted in unauthorized access to employees’ protected health information.
• Provided counsel to a health care consulting firm on responding to and remediating an intrusion arising from a spoofing attack that exposed sensitive customer and patient information.
• Assisted a global manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of OEM and aftermarket automotive and truck components in responding to and remediating service provider data breaches.
• Represented a publicly traded lighting manufacturer in a data breach associated with an accounts payable fraud scheme.
• Assisted a pre-commercial pharmaceutical business in investigating and remediating an Office 365 intrusion that potentially exposed employee and clinical data.
• Assisted multiple group health plans in reviewing, analyzing and assessing potential HIPAA breaches of their business associates, including undertaking risk analyses and advising on documentation requirements.
• Assisted a clinical laboratory in responding to a significant data breach of its business associate that compromised the health information of many of its patients.
• Assisted hospitals in investigating and responding to HIPAA data breaches, including an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.
• Assisted an investment advisory firm in investigating and remediating a system intrusion that resulted in the exposure and exfiltration of highly sensitive personal and financial information of high net worth individuals without adverse claims or litigation.
• Assisted a non-bank financial services provider in responding to and remediating an Office 365 intrusion that exposed sensitive financial and other personal information and that resulted in fraudulent government benefit claims.
• Assisted a faith-based nonprofit organization in investigating and remediating an Office 365 intrusion resulting from a phishing attack, including forensic review of incident and affected data and management of breach notifications and agency filings.
• Assisted a leading automotive aftermarket parts and service mass retailer in responding to and remediating Office 365 intrusion that compromised employee and customer personal information, including management of breach notifications and regulatory filings.
• Provided assistance to a distributor of automotive aftermarket parts in recovering from and remediating a ransomware intrusion without payment of ransom.
• Assisted a global manufacturing company with response to and resolution of a ransomware attack that compromised employee HR data (e.g., 401(k) plan, benefits plan), including drafting breach notification letter to clients and assisting with development of post-breach written information security plan.
• Prepared data incident response plans and programs and assisted global companies in responding to serious data incidents, including ransomware attacks impacting operations in both domestic and foreign jurisdictions.
• Worked with a mid-sized insurance company with locations on the East Coast and in the South that focuses on homeowners and property insurance, including assessing its data privacy program against industry standards and best practices and providing recommendations and deliverables on how to resolve cyber vulnerabilities.
• Engaged with clients’ cyber insurance carriers to address claims related to ransomware and other cyberattacks.