Companies have been pressing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for additional guidance on data security, and the agency recently delivered. On August 10, 2015, the FTC issued a public closing letter to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (Morgan Stanley) regarding the agency’s investigation into concerns that the company “fail[ed] to secure, in a reasonable and appropriate manner, account information related to Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management clients.”1 In the context of data security investigations, closing letters—which explain why FTC staff opted to close an investigation—have the potential to offer helpful insights on what security measures the FTC considers to be reasonably designed to protect the privacy and security of personal information. Knowing what factors influenced the FTC staff’s decision to close an investigation in one instance is equally instructive as knowing why the staff decided to pursue an enforcement action in another.
Continue Reading FTC Closing Letter Confirms the Importance of Implementing Employee Access Controls