Legal Recourse for Victims of Blockchain and Cyber Breach Attacks

Reports of disruptive cyber breaches remain a daily occurrence. The costs to individuals, businesses, government, healthcare providers, and educational and municipal institutions is staggering. Policy makers and corporate management continue to struggle to find solutions to these wicked problems. Complicating cybersecurity technical and regulatory challenges is the rapid pace of technological change which brings novel threats with the relatively recent explosion of blockchain-enabled and artificial intelligence applications. Existing legislation and case law was not written with such technologies, actions or behavior in mind, leading to considerable uncertainty. Differences in regulatory jurisdiction based on the actual way in which these new technologies (such as blockchain) often create novel uncertainties and difficult compliance issues. Now, the threat landscape has become more complicated due to emerging developments in quantum computing, “an emerging field that promises to solve problems too complex for existing supercomputers.” What has been the development of legal recourse for victims of cybercrimes and likely future developments in recovery for such injuries?Our paper proceeds in eight parts. First, we provide a description of the history and mechanics of blockchain technology. Second is an explanation of societal and corporate responsibility for data security. Third, is a description of the current status of the escalating cyber threat. Fourth, we discuss regulation of blockchain technology. Fifth is coverage of quantum computing. Sixth is a discussion of national security considerations. Seventh, we provide an explanation of potential legal liability for injury resulting from cyber-attacks and blockchain exploits. And last, we conclude. We believe that this paper contributes to the literature about this significant real-world problem