Court Upholds FTC’s Power to Sue Hacked Companies
From: Nextgov
By Brendan Sasso Government Executive
The Federal Trade Commission has the power to sue companies that fail to protect their customers’ data, a federal court in New Jersey said Monday.
The ruling shoots down a challenge from Wyndham Hotels, which argued that the FTC overstepped its authority with a 2012 lawsuit against the global hotel chain.
The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas is a major win for the agency. If the court had sided with Wyndham, it would have stripped the federal government of oversight of data security practices just as hackers begin to pull off more and more high-profile attacks.
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