New Webinar: What IT People Need To Know About The Law

from the putting-on-that-legal-hat dept

A few weeks ago, we had a post about why IT people need to be knowledgeable about the law, rather than just about technology. It was based on an excellent article by Dave Navetta on The Legal Defensibility Era (pdf). For years, IT folks have recognized that they often wear two hats, switching between a technology one and a business one, as they often have to explain or justify the business tradeoffs of the IT decisions they make. But these days, they also really need to add a legal hat.

Given the immense interest we received in this particular topic, we've decided that it will be the topic of our next webinar in our IT Innovation series: What IT needs to know about the law to be held next Wednesday, May 26th at 9am PT/noon ET. We're thrilled that Dave Navetta, who wrote the article that sparked the original discussion, will be participating and discussing this "era of legal defensibility" that IT people need to understand. Dave has built a career around bridging that gap between IT folks and legal folks, and is obviously perfect to be part of this discussion. With him will be Larry Downes, most recently the author of The Laws of Disruption, which is all about how the legal realm is hugely important to understanding business and technology in the world today, and how anyone looking to succeed in the internet age needs to understand some of these key legal principles. Larry's a well-known writer, speaker, pundit and consultant on this important intersection of the law and the technology world, and between David and Larry, the discussion should be quite a lot of fun. Once again, I'll be moderating.

I'm really excited about this particular topic and the two speakers. We've been preparing for the webinar over the past few days, and there are a ton of interesting topics to discuss, concerning how the law is impacting security, privacy and the wider IT world. Depending on timing, we may dip into some other areas, including intellectual property law, Section 230 and the like. Given the discussions we regularly have on this site, and how important legal issues have become in the IT world over the past few years, this is going to be a can't miss discussion, so sign up now. As with previous webinars, the discussion is designed to be interactive, and we can take questions from the audience via the web interface during the event, so please come ready with questions.

Filed Under: it, legal defensibility, privacy, security

Why IT Security Guys Now Also Need To Be Legal Experts

from the welcome-to-the-modern-world dept

Every so often we get complaints from people who point out that this site is called "Techdirt," and yet quite frequently talks about the legal issues. There are a few different responses to this, but one of the key points is that, if you're in the tech field these days, you actually really do need to be pretty familiar with the law in a lot of ways. This is a point that I've been thinking about a lot lately, so it seemed like great timing when Michael Scott directed our attention to an article about how IT and security folks now need to recognize that legal risks are a big part of the security realm:

The era of legal defensibility is upon us. The legal risk associated with information security is significant and will only increase over time. Security professionals will have to defend their security decisions in a foreign realm: the legal world. This article discusses implementing security that is both secure and legally defensible, which is key for managing information security legal risk.

It certainly takes things pretty far outside the world where information security folks are used to living. And while there may be a sense of being able to defend the technological decisions should there be a security breach, reaching the level of "legal defensibility" involves a whole different set of issues.

The blog post linked above notes that we're still early in realizing this overlapping arena of security and law, and it's important to have folks from all of these disciplines work together:

Now is the time for legal, privacy and security professionals to break down arbitrary and antiquated walls that separate their professions. The distinctions between security, privacy and compliance are becoming so blurred as to ultimately be meaningless. Like it or not, it all must be dealt with holistically, at the same time, and with expertise from multiple fronts. In this regard we must all develop thick skins and be not afraid to stop zealously guarding turf. The reality is, the legal and security worlds have collided, and most lawyers don't know enough about security, and most security professionals don't know enough about the law. Let's change that.

Indeed. In fact, this is part of the reason that I made sure there was at least some legal discussion in our upcoming webinar on security in the cloud -- because it's an important aspect of security these days, and the cloud raises some serious legal questions (if you haven't registered yet, please do!). But making sure that legal and security/IT people are talking about this regularly is important. Otherwise, you can bet that the legal folks are going to make decisions that are going to come back to haunt those in the IT and security worlds...

Filed Under: it, legal defensibility, security