SANS Legal 523: Law of Data Security and Investigations
I recently attended the SANS Legal 523 course during SANS Fire 2010, in Washington DC. The course instructor is Benjamin Wright, an attorney with deep experience in technology and security.
Based on a little inquiry, I gathered that this course is rarely attended by lawyers, and is most often attended by IT professionals. This makes sense as it is hard to imagine attorneys being drawn to an organization like SANS. However, the best professionals today are those with relevant training in multiple disciplines. If you are an attorney and want to learn about information security from the best, I highly recommend taking this course after taking SANS Security 301 as a pre-requisite.
The Legal 523 course is broken out as follows:
Day 1: Fundamentals of IT Security Law and Policy
- Security Policy
- Privacy Notice & Privacy Laws
- Computer Crime Laws
- Intellectual Property
- Non-Disclosure Agreements and Terms of Use
- Honeypots & Entrapment
- Active Defenses, Hacking Back
Day 2: E-Records, E-Discovery, and Business Law
- Vicarious Liability
- E-Discovery
- Records Retention, Destruction
- Email Retention
- Forensics
- Privacy Policies
- Evidence Law
- Signatures
Day 3: Contracting for Data Security and Other Technology
- Click Through Agreements
- Contract Formation
- Battle of the Forms
- Liability
- Breach
- Bonds
- Assent
- Warranty
- Remedies
- Liens
- Ownership Issues
- Subpoenas, Documentation, Audits
- Exceptions
- Maintenance
- Termination
- Escrow
- Investigations
- Competition
- Disputes
- Non-Disclosure
Day 4: The Law of IT Compliance: How to Conduct Investigations
- Cooperation with investigations
- Numerous Examples of Fraud (Post-Mordems)
- SOX; (See also here and here.)
- Securities Fraud
- Federal Sentencing Guidelines
- Codes of Ethics
- Hotlines, Reporting, Whistleblowing
- Employee Monitoring, Entrapment
- Raids & Seizures
Day 5: Applying Law to Emerging Dangers: Cyber Defense
- Sony Root Kit Case Study
- Crisis Communications
- Choicepoint Case Study
- Relationship with Law Enforcement
- TJX Case Study
- Publicity
- Safely Monitoring Threats w/o Incurring Liability
- Factors Mitigating Legal Risk
- Public Accountability
- Political Diplomacy
- Strategic Legal Procedures
- Competitive Boundaries
