Asset protection now isn’t just about walling off assets from legal assaults. It’s now about walling off sensitive data from technological assaults. I’ve written about this issue several times before.  

But what about hackers? Someone who has had to deal with hackers is Ara Trembly, an insurance tech guru. Literally so in the form of his new blog, The Insurance Tech Guru. Ara knows. In his day job, he’s Senior Editor, Technology, of the National Underwriter, an insurance industry news hub.

Ara raises the question, Security Breaches: When Do You Tell The Public?. It’s an interesting one with legal, ethical, and public relations implications for a financial service company whose security is breached. He cites a recent article from Computerworld that on-line broker TD Ameritrade may have been warned about a security breach a year or more before it publicly acknowledged the problem and warned those customers who might be affected – as many as 6.2 million. And it’s now the basis of a class action suit which was filed in May. The lawyers will sort it out, of course.

But if you appreciate irony, then click here. It will take you to TD Ameritrade’s home page where you will be greeted by the company’s spokesman, Sam Waterston. Yes, that same Sam Waterston who plays Jack McCoy, recently elevated to District Attorney, on NBC’s long-running TV series, Law and Order after Fred Dalton Thompson, former Senator from Tennessee who played D.A. Arthur Branch resigned to run for the GOP nomination for President.

Thompson is up against, among others, Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and a former real prosecutor, the U.S.  Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Perception is reality or reality is perception. Take your pick.