[bawolff]

This is a solved problem in pretty much every other domain of life - if you are following best practises but something that wasn't reasonably forseeable happens, then you're fine, but if the bad thing happens as a result of negligence then you are in trouble.

[jameshart]

Criminal law isn't about making things alright for the victim. That's what insurance is for.

Even if you leave your door unlocked, if someone walks in and steals your stuff, it's a crime. The state has an interest in prosecuting crimes even if the victim didn't do everything they could to prevent it.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Criminal law isn't about making things alright for the victim

Restitution and retribution are the components of justice [1] entirely about "making things alright for the victim."

[1] https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/crime-prevention-criminal-justi...

[bawolff]

The company is not the victim here. Its users are. [I suppose my previous comment was a bit ambigious - i meant something bad happens to someone else not to yourself]

A better version of your analogy would be if your landlord failed to repair your front door in a reasonable period of time and as a result soneone walked in and stole your stuff. Yes the theif is the primary responsible party, but the landlords negligence in maintaining the property probably also exposes them to some liability.

P.s. This is neither here nor there, but restitution is a part of criminal law.

[jameshart]

Some liability, sure. Civil, not criminal, though, right?

But the post I was responding to said it should be a crime to have unsecured systems.

That is equivalent to saying it should be a crime to leave your door unlocked.

[isityettime]

"Best practice" in cybersecurity is largely vendor-driven with little to no independent empirical validation.

That standard is likely to lock people into buying some pretty bad software, but it does little to ensure that they're running reasonably secure systems.

[SoftTalker]

I like to relate it to operating an automobile. You can follow every traffic law and still be liable in an accident, because you owned the vehicle that caused the damage. This is why you have insurance.

[MagicMoonlight]

In civil law maybe, but you aren’t allowed to blame a rape victim for choosing to walk down rape alley…