The Institute for Justice podcast is always an interesting listen. I could write exclusively about the cases they talk about, but that's sort of what they do in their newsletter, and if I've learned anything about the law, it's that I don't want a lawyer suing me for plagiarism.
But one case made me rewind the podcast to make me sure heard it correctly, and sure enough, I did.
An internet security firm, Tiversa, intentionally broke into a medical laboratory's server, stole sensitive data, then approached the lab's management in an attempt to land them as a client. The lab refused, probably figuring that they'd be better served by a firm with a sightly more ethical approach.
When Tiversa did not get the job, they reported the breach to the Federal Trade Commission in the hopes that the heavy hand of the government would pressure the lab into purchasing their services.
Here's where I got confused. I was expecting that Tiversa would have been prosecuted for stealing the data. I was wrong. It took about 4 years, but the FTC eventually sued the lab over the data breach.
Maybe it's just me, but blaming the victim is never good policy. This is the kind of abuse that I trust Rand Paul would attempt to curb. I hope Donald Trump will as well.
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