Ken Dort Quoted in New York Times

Chicago partner Ken Dort was quoted in a recent New York Times article, titled “For Target, the Breach Numbers Grow.”  The article discussed the PR fallout from Target’s vast holiday season security breach, in which the personal information of between 70 and 100 million people was stolen, more than three times the original estimate.

Major credit card companies and banks have been issuing warnings about potential fraud to their customers, and both the Secret Service and Justice Department have opened investigations.  Target has acknowledged that sales have slipped since the announcement of the security breach on December 19.

Ken has handled dozens of corporate security breach cases and said he has a hard time criticizing anything that Target has done so far. “I tell my clients in these situations ‘Don’t hide anything.  Just be out there.  Tell them what’s going on, where you’re going to go and what you’re going to do.’”

He also noted that, the risks were still substantial for a company that has enjoyed an enormously favorable reputation among shoppers for both its prices and its style.  No matter how well the company handles it, he noted, “it’s just a lot of bad P.R.”