Equifax C.E.O. Richard Smith Retires After Huge Data Breach
So if I design a car with a faulty steering mechanism that fails under unusual circumstances but, when it does, can cause a possibly fatal accident, I have a huge liability problem. Product liability as a whole is a pretty big deal. And that can be in spite of countless hours of testing where there is no evidence of malfeasance, negligence or even incompetence.<p>Why haven&#x27;t product liability laws caught up with information services? The Equifax breach here was caused by, at the very least, reckless negligence in that they failed to patch a published vulnerability for MONTHS after it was disclosed.<p>Now I&#x27;m not talking about the BS class actions you get where the class gets nothing (except for the named plaintiffs who, for some reason, make out like bandits) and the lawyers make a ton of money.<p>What I&#x27;m talking about is having the same expectations, requirements and civil and criminal punishments that product liability would have with a physical product, at least when it comes to willful negligence of this sort.<p>The VW emissions scandal (rightly) is resulting in criminal prosecutions for fraud.<p>But the makers of routers, IoT light bulbs and the like seem to suffer no consequences for (and thus have no incentive to improve) the security of their products.<p>I just don&#x27;t get it.