Gunster offers both breadth and depth of experience in the complex legal issues associated with cyber security and data protection. Our abilities range from proactive planning and creating data protocols and cyber security programs, to working with law enforcement and banking institutions to recoup stolen funds while assessing the liability of the potential loss, to responding to breaches, criminal activity and all related state and federal litigation.
Our firm represents all types of clients involved in managing data and the electronic distribution of information and money. Our clients include Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies, as well as institutional and nonprofit organizations. Our depth of skill includes traditional business and specialized industry such as education, technology and health care, including hospital systems, physician practices and third-party vendors.
Our team works with clients to identify, address and overcome the many challenges associated with cyber security and data protection. Our attorneys assist with the creation of privacy policies and executive employee training programs, advise on data breach, inquiry response and affected individual notification plans, and negotiate data breach-related liability provisions in vendor and other contracts. Our team works with clients to comply with state and federal laws, a sampling of which includes the Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA), PCI, HIPAA, GINA and GLBA. Our lawyers also provide legal counsel regarding information considered particularly sensitive, such as substance abuse, mental and behavioral health, sexually transmitted diseases, and allegations of misconduct.
Our firm works with clients to analyze and respond to potential and actual data breach challenges as they arise and in real time. Our lawyers focus on delivering practical solutions that are sustainable and make sense for the business and industry in which our client is involved. Moreover, our team prosecutes and defends all privacy and data security-related litigation. In addition, our firm has advised on such issues as cyber liability insurance, ransomware attacks from Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim, and the use of cryptocurrency, while also working with law enforcement at all levels and advising on post breach clean-up, as well as internal investigations, to mitigate the potential of a future attack.
Collaboration enables our team to be more effective in the event of a data breach. If needed, our lawyers work with clients to establish an interdisciplinary team — which can include executives, lawyers, public relations specialists and others who collaborate on a thorough data breach plan — so that if a data breach event occurs, all appropriate stakeholders are properly notified, and the organization can respond in a manner that addresses business needs, legal compliance, crisis management and PR concerns.
Our team is qualified. Among our team members are an IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional and past privacy consultant for the Florida Agency of Healthcare Administration, who assisted with the legal aspects of the shift to electronic health information while focusing on removing barriers for more efficient information sharing. Our team is also comprised of veteran federal prosecutors with honed competencies in the criminal investigatory space, civil litigation and specifically, cyber security issues. Our former prosecutors draw upon their network of relationships with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Treasury Department, and myriad banking institutions and their fraud departments, in order to solve client problems, and are well-versed in the many moving parts of a breach or attack, when seeking to provide clients with solutions that take into account how the government regulates the industry as a whole.
