Companies To Be Liable For Deals With Online Criminals

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, sends us to DarkReading for a backgrounder on new rules from the FTC, taking effect in November, that will require any business that handles private consumer data to check its customers and suppliers against databases of known online criminals. Companies that fail to do so may be liable for large fines or jail time. In practice, most companies will contract with specialist services to perform these checks. Yet another list you don't want to get on. "The [FTC's] Red Flag program... requires enterprises to check their customers and suppliers against databases of known online criminals — much like what OFAC [the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control] does with terrorists — and also carries potential fines and penalties for businesses that don't do their due diligence before making a major transaction."

Comments

EU Export

[Tiberius_Fel]

To my knowledge, European Union regulations already require you to check the people to whom you are shipping goods, to see if they are on a list of known terrorists and their associates.

Re:I'm doing business with Mastercard

[bcwright]

I think if you read the actual proposed regulation that's published at http://www.ftc.gov/ you'll see that that's exactly what happens. This regulation does not appear to apply to businesses who merely accept credit cards, but rather to those who issue credit cards or other forms of credit.