The recent news that Yahoo’s general counsel had resigned following a probe of high-profile data breaches at the company has generated a great deal of discussion and concern. In the following guest post, David Fontaine and John Reed Stark take a look at the circumstances surrounding the resignation and consider the implications of and lessons from this development. David is the CEO of Kroll and its parent company, Corporate Risk Holdings, and John is President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement. A version of this article originally appeared on CybersecurityDocket. I would like to thank Dave and John for their willingness to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Dave and John’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Three Cybersecurity Lessons From Yahoo’s Legal Department Woes
There is little doubt that cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues in the contemporary corporate, political and economic arena. When, as have seen, cybersecurity has become a critical issue in the U.S. political and electoral processes, it is clear that the consequence and complications associated with cybersecurity have become both acute. Cybersecurity has become a pervasive issue that with political, military, and economic implications. It is also one of the foremost issues – if not the foremost issue – in the corporate risk management environment. In a complex and rapidly changing world, many companies and their senior officials are struggling to deal with cybersecurity issues and their implications.
Fifteen years ago this month, the once high-flying energy company Enron completed its massive collapse when it filed a petition for bankruptcy protection. In his interesting December 2, 2016 post on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation (
The Securities and Exchange Commission is primarily concerned with public companies and the securities markets in which the shares of public companies trade. However, in a series of recent speeches and presentations as part of what the agency had called the “Silicon Valley Initiative,” the agency made it clear that it is increasingly concerned with private and pre-IPO companies as well, particularly so-called “unicorns” – that is, the private start-up firms with valuations greater than $1 billion. SEC Chairman Mary Jo White highlighted these concerns in a March 31, 2016 speech at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford Law School, a copy of which can be found 
