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Free App By Phila. Law Firm Informs Businesses of Rights, Duties in Data Breach

By Ian Bush

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)-- The data breach affecting tens of millions of holiday shoppers at Target is a stark reminder to businesses that information security must be a priority.

But how a company responds when cybercrime happens also is critical -- and that's where a Philadelphia law firm comes in.

From Target to Yahoo, Skype to Snapchat...

"We are obviously in a very challenging environment. Every day it seems there's a new headline that talks about some kind of data breach or privacy breach."

Scott Vernick, a partner at Fox Rothschild, says it's not always the business falling down on the job.

"Cyber criminals are extremely inventive and creative and sort of always one step ahead."

When the bad guys strike, it's whiplash for a company: what happened? What was taken? How much damage to intellectual property and customer information?

"So what we wanted to do was put at their fingertips sort of a one-stop-shop resource."

In the form of a free iPhone app, called Data Breach 411.

"It enables clients in a quick way to get a handle on exactly what are their duties to notify consumers under the various statutes in some 46 states."

The app includes access to the federal HIPAA and HITECH health information security rules.

To visit the site, click here.

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