In this episode of CHATTINN CYBER, Marc interviews John Mullen, Managing Partner of Mullen Coughlin, the leading and largest privacy law firm solely dedicated to privacy and cybersecurity law in the U.S.  Focused on providing tailored data privacy and incident response services, John’s firm handles breach response, pre-breach planning and compliance, regulatory investigation and management, and privacy litigation defense under the umbrella of cyber insurance.

John’s friend Mark Greisiger of NetDiligence coined the term “Data Breach Coach” to describe what John and his firm do for companies in helping them during a data breach crisis under an insurance policy. In addition to the services John’s firm provides these companies, they also assist as part of a suite of services provided by insurance in the event of a data breach.

Estimating that the firm handles a third of all breaches in the country under the umbrella of insurance, John is uniquely qualified to share the details of the industry, as well as the evolution of cybersecurity hacks from the early days. It is a story of “hacktivists,” nation states, and rogue employees breaching security to the current-day situation in which bad players leverage ransomware to demand six figures at least – some up to millions of dollars -  from companies.

John expands on their post-breach response, including business interruption, as well as their pre-breach counseling and its limitations. In describing the future of data breaches, he explains that cybersecurity is a niche area that is growing in both law and insurance, both of which don’t have areas of growth outside of this industry. Listen to hear all of this, as well as what John has to say about his firm’s relationship with the FBI.