Over the last several years, it has become commonplace for the media to publish information based on electronic materials that have been removed or copied either by organizational insiders and/or external people or groups. The publication of this type of material has impacted individuals, public and private organizations and various government agencies. While it is important for a free society to have the benefits of a free press serving as one of the checks and balances to protect citizens from abusive practices, we may have reached a point where we should re-examine how this is practiced. Are our criminal and civil statues effective on these issues?

The study also found that almost half of the small business owners surveyed conduct no regular audits of their security protocols, and three in 10 have never performed an audit.

While legislators have passed a multitude of statutes to aid in the protection of our economic interests pertaining to data systems – non-physical assets and privacy – frequently any course of action is still determined by the concept of monetary loss and treated as if someone was stealing or damaging physical assets, or as in the case of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), creating a statue that has been described as dense and confusing to even legal scholars.