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I wonder if the legal concept res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself) could apply here? It's one foundation of tort law.

The argument would be that the very fact that PII security was breached demonstrates defendant's negligent data storage/security practices. If those practices had been adequate, the breach would not have occurred.

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If that's the case then I'd suggest every software developer on this forum immediately switch careers, this one is doomed.

Well, there is that. Maybe reality is that no set of security practices can ever secure PII. If so, that's an even bigger problem than lackadaisical firms like Equifax.

But I think higher expectations, helped along with civil legal machinery that's likely to mete out meaningful punishment, would move us faster to finding out whether the problems are mostly just sloppy practice (which responds to economic penalties) or whether they're more fundamental and need a different fix.

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