When conducting due diligence during an acquisition, what should a privacy professional avoid?
For an organization that has just experienced a data breach, what might be the least relevant metric for a company's privacy and governance team?
What have experts identified as an important trend in privacy program development?
All of the following are access control measures required by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) EXCEPT?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
For 15 years, Albert has worked at Treasure Box – a mail order company in the United States (U.S.) that used to sell decorative candles around the world, but has recently decided to limit its shipments to customers in the 48 contiguous states. Despite his years of experience, Albert is often overlooked for managerial positions. His frustration about not being promoted, coupled with his recent interest in issues of privacy protection, have motivated Albert to be an agent of positive change.
He will soon interview for a newly advertised position, and during the interview, Albert plans on making executives aware of lapses in the company’s privacy program. He feels certain he will be rewarded with a promotion for preventing negative consequences resulting from the company’s outdated policies and procedures.
For example, Albert has learned about the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountans)/CICA (Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants) Privacy Maturity Model (PMM). Albert thinks the model is a useful way to measure Treasure Box’s ability to protect personal data. Albert has noticed that Treasure Box fails to meet the requirements of the highest level of maturity of this model; at his interview, Albert will pledge to assist the company with meeting this level in order to provide customers with the most rigorous security available.
Albert does want to show a positive outlook during his interview. He intends to praise the company’s commitment to the security of customer and employee personal data against external threats. However, Albert worries about the high turnover rate within the company, particularly in the area of direct phone marketing. He sees many unfamiliar faces every day who are hired to do the marketing, and he often hears complaints in the lunch room regarding long hours and low pay, as well as what seems to be flagrant disregard for company procedures.
In addition, Treasure Box has had two recent security incidents. The company has responded to the incidents with internal audits and updates to security safeguards. However, profits still seem to be affected and anecdotal evidence indicates that many people still harbor mistrust. Albert wants to help the company recover. He knows there is at least one incident the public in unaware of, although Albert does not know the details. He believes the company’s insistence on keeping the incident a secret could be a further detriment to its reputation. One further way that Albert wants to help Treasure Box regain its stature is by creating a toll-free number for customers, as well as a more efficient procedure for responding to customer concerns by postal mail.
In addition to his suggestions for improvement, Albert believes that his knowledge of the company’s recent business maneuvers will also impress the interviewers. For example, Albert is aware of the company’s intention to acquire a medical supply company in the coming weeks.
With his forward thinking, Albert hopes to convince the managers who will be interviewing him that he is right for the job.
The company may start to earn back the trust of its customer base by following Albert’s suggestion regarding which handling procedure?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
Perhaps Jack Kelly should have stayed in the U.S. He enjoys a formidable reputation inside the company, Special Handling Shipping, for his work in reforming certain "rogue" offices. Last year, news broke that a police sting operation had revealed a drug ring operating in the Providence, Rhode Island office in the United States. Video from the office's video surveillance cameras leaked to news operations showed a drug exchange between Special Handling staff and undercover officers.
In the wake of this incident, Kelly had been sent to Providence to change the "hands off" culture that upper management believed had let the criminal elements conduct their illicit transactions. After a few weeks under Kelly's direction, the office became a model of efficiency and customer service. Kelly monitored his workers' activities using the same cameras that had recorded the illegal conduct of their former co-workers.
Now Kelly has been charged with turning around the office in Cork, Ireland, another trouble spot. The company has received numerous reports of the staff leaving the office unattended. When Kelly arrived, he found that even when present, the staff often spent their days socializing or conducting personal business on their mobile phones. Again, he observed their behaviors using surveillance cameras. He issued written reprimands to six staff members based on the first day of video alone.
Much to Kelly's surprise and chagrin, he and the company are now under investigation by the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland for allegedly violating the privacy rights of employees. Kelly was told that the company's license for the cameras listed facility security as their main use, but he does not know why this matters. He has pointed out to his superiors that the company's training programs on privacy protection and data collection mention nothing about surveillance video.
You are a privacy protection consultant, hired by the company to assess this incident, report on the legal and compliance issues, and recommend next steps.
What does this example best illustrate about training requirements for privacy protection?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
Paul Daniels, with years of experience as a CEO, is worried about his son Carlton's successful venture, Gadgo. A technological innovator in the communication industry that quickly became profitable, Gadgo has moved beyond its startup phase. While it has retained its vibrant energy, Paul fears that under Carlton's
direction, the company may not be taking its risks or obligations as seriously as it needs to. Paul has hired you, a Privacy Consultant, to assess the company and report to both father and son. "Carlton won't listen to me," Paul says, "but he may pay attention to an expert."
Gadgo's workplace is a clubhouse for innovation, with games, toys, snacks. espresso machines, giant fish tanks and even an iguana who regards you with little interest. Carlton, too, seems bored as he describes to you the company's procedures and technologies for data protection. It's a loose assemblage of controls, lacking consistency and with plenty of weaknesses. "This is a technology company," Carlton says. "We create. We innovate. I don't want unnecessary measures that will only slow people down and clutter their thoughts."
The meeting lasts until early evening. Upon leaving, you walk through the office it looks as if a strong windstorm has recently blown through, with papers scattered across desks and tables and even the floor. A "cleaning crew" of one teenager is emptying the trash bins. A few computers have been left on for the night, others are missing. Carlton takes note of your attention to this: "Most of my people take their laptops home with them, or use their own tablets or phones. I want them to use whatever helps them to think and be ready day or night for that great insight. It may only come once!"
What phase in the Privacy Maturity Model (PMM) does Gadgo's privacy program best exhibit?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
Martin Briseño is the director of human resources at the Canyon City location of the U.S. hotel chain Pacific Suites. In 1998, Briseño decided to change the hotel’s on-the-job mentoring model to a standardized training program for employees who were progressing from line positions into supervisory positions. He developed a curriculum comprising a series of lessons, scenarios, and assessments, which was delivered in-person to small groups. Interest in the training increased, leading Briseño to work with corporate HR specialists and software engineers to offer the program in an online format. The online program saved the cost of a trainer and allowed participants to work through the material at their own pace.
Upon hearing about the success of Briseño’s program, Pacific Suites corporate Vice President Maryanne Silva-Hayes expanded the training and offered it company-wide. Employees who completed the program received certification as a Pacific Suites Hospitality Supervisor. By 2001, the program had grown to provide
industry-wide training. Personnel at hotels across the country could sign up and pay to take the course online. As the program became increasingly profitable, Pacific Suites developed an offshoot business, Pacific Hospitality Training (PHT). The sole focus of PHT was developing and marketing a variety of online courses and course progressions providing a number of professional certifications in the hospitality industry.
By setting up a user account with PHT, course participants could access an information library, sign up for courses, and take end-of-course certification tests. When a user opened a new account, all information was saved by default, including the user’s name, date of birth, contact information, credit card information, employer, and job title. The registration page offered an opt-out choice that users could click to not have their credit card numbers saved. Once a user name and password were established, users could return to check their course status, review and reprint their certifications, and sign up and pay for new courses. Between 2002 and 2008, PHT issued more than 700,000 professional certifications.
PHT’s profits declined in 2009 and 2010, the victim of industry downsizing and increased competition from e- learning providers. By 2011, Pacific Suites was out of the online certification business and PHT was dissolved. The training program’s systems and records remained in Pacific Suites’ digital archives, un-accessed and unused. Briseño and Silva-Hayes moved on to work for other companies, and there was no plan for handling the archived data after the program ended. After PHT was dissolved, Pacific Suites executives turned their attention to crucial day-to-day operations. They planned to deal with the PHT materials once resources allowed.
In 2012, the Pacific Suites computer network was hacked. Malware installed on the online reservation system exposed the credit card information of hundreds of hotel guests. While targeting the financial data on the reservation site, hackers also discovered the archived training course data and registration accounts of Pacific Hospitality Training’s customers. The result of the hack was the exfiltration of the credit card numbers of recent hotel guests and the exfiltration of the PHT database with all its contents.
A Pacific Suites systems analyst discovered the information security breach in a routine scan of activity reports. Pacific Suites quickly notified credit card companies and recent hotel guests of the breach, attempting to prevent serious harm. Technical security engineers faced a challenge in dealing with the PHT data.
PHT course administrators and the IT engineers did not have a system for tracking, cataloguing, and storing information. Pacific Suites has procedures in place for data access and storage, but those procedures were not implemented when PHT was formed. When the PHT database was acquired by Pacific Suites, it had no owner or oversight. By the time technical security engineers determined what private information was compromised, at least 8,000 credit card holders were potential victims of fraudulent activity.
What must Pacific Suite’s primary focus be as it manages this security breach?
Your company wants to convert paper records that contain customer personal information into electronic form, upload the records into a new third-party marketing tool and then merge the customer personal information in the marketing tool with information from other applications.
As the Privacy Officer, which of the following should you complete to effectively make these changes?
When conducting due diligence during an acquisition, what should a privacy professional avoid?
