Cringely has a PBS column of 4 August 2005 about The New Robber Barons that revolves around the Sarbanes-Oxley Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act (SOX) and other recent legislation. The key to his argument is that:

These laws, especially the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), now make the victim of cyber theft into a criminal. And under Sarbanes Oxley, directors are held liable and can be sent to jail.

So suppose you’re a small financial institution, such as a credit union. It’s hard to keep track of everything, and eventually you’re likely to have some information stolen. You can try to keep it from the public, but you can’t keep it from your accounting firm. Continue reading →