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10 J. Bus. & Tech. L. Proxy 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/jbtprxy10 and id is 1 raw text is: KAYLIE GIOIOSO' Small Companies, Big Breaches: Why Current Data Protection Laws Fail American Consumers in Cases of Third-Party Hacking THE NUMBER OF DATA BREACHES resulting in stolen consumer identities continues to soar in the United States as businesses increase their online presences. Small businesses have been particularly and disproportionately impacted.2 Hackers are increasingly attacking smaller vendors with weak security systems as entry points into the systems of large corporations, a phenomenon known as third-party hacking. Current laws, which require only that reasonable security measures in light of a company's size, offer little consumer protection from these third-party breaches.' Lawmakers could better serve American consumers by deferring to state law regimes. Individual states should pass laws that focus on comprehensive data security and give states' attorney generals broad enforcement power. Part I of this comment discusses the general background surrounding data breaches, part II discusses the current legal landscape, part III analyzes the efficacy of the reasonableness standard, and finally, part IV suggests ways in which data breach laws can be improved upon moving forward. © 2016 Kaylie Gioioso * J.D., University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, 2016; B.B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, Loyola University Maryland, 2012. I would like to thank the members of the Journal of Business & Technology Law for their very helpful feedback in writing this comment. I dedicate this comment to my parents, Holly and Wayne Gioioso, Jr., and my siblings, Kara, Lily, and Bennett, for all of their love and support. I also dedicate this comment to Alex Stern for making law school the best three years of my life! 1. See infra Section I.A. 2. See infra Section I.B. 3. See infra Section I.D. 4. See infra Section II.A. 5. See infra Section IV. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY LAW PROXY