Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about your individual situation it is best to seek the advice of an experienced legal professional.

When a cyber security conflict hits a business, business mediation is an ideal way to resolve this sensitive issue. Conflicts over cyber security are extraordinarily fraught. They can involve the leaking of sensitive customer data, release of proprietary business ideas and more. The question of who is to blame can wreak havoc within a company or between companies and clients, such as outsourced IT or cyber security firms.

Who is Responsible for Cyber Security Breaches?

When cyber security breaches happen it is often the customer’s data that is exposed. However, companies who interact together for any reason, especially through the cloud, can expose each other’s information, whether it is customer details or business secrets.

Cyber security breaches are the fault of the cloud service provider, right? In fact it’s often the responsibility of the organization who uses the cloud service. Laws have not caught up to emerging cyber security issues, so a cyber security dispute is not guaranteed to end in any party’s favor.

This is why it’s best to use business mediation to find an out of court solution that preserves your business relationships while taking responsibility for any financial or security damage to individuals or a company.

Business Mediation and Cyber Security Disputes

At Boileau Conflict Solutions we mediate disputes within organizations, between businesses and between companies and service providers. No matter what the dispute is, we help parties move past blame towards mutual benefit. Our mediators apply proven cooperative conflict resolution tools to identify separate and common interest and work towards a common goal. We also engage our legal and financial expertise to ensure that any agreements are legally sound and financially productive.

Disputes about cyber security can have lasting consequences for organizations and business relationships. These can result in toxic work environments, ripple effects within a business network and damage to reputation. When a cyber-security breach happens there is often an immediate move to assign blame. This avoids a solution-based approach and can result in conflict. Conflict over cyber-security issues can involve any of the following issues:

• B2B interactions via the cloud. Unclear boundaries about who is responsible for the security and the service
• Pandemic Work from Home arrangements, poorly secured laptops etc.
• Pressure on lower ranking IT departments to secure systems, but CIOs not budgeting security
• Customer data leaks — what do companies owe their customers?
• Research and proprietary data — how to make amends for a leak that could affect profits or reputation?

Finding out who is to blame or going to war with a service provider might seem like a good idea, but it usually has negative consequences. At Boileau Conflict Solutions, our conflict approach is to build practical and positive strategies that involve financial plans, emotions and company policy. We have offices in Solana Beach and San Diego and are available for remote socially distanced mediations as desired. If you are facing conflict over cyber security accountability, please contact us today.