RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, as practically every aspect of private and public business is conducted and stored on virtual networks and warehouses, data breaches are occurring more frequently and with more potentially disastrous repercussions; and
WHEREAS, "hacks" and data breaches have a near constant stronghold on news headlines as cybercrime afflicts nations and industries throughout the globe; and
WHEREAS, for example, in 2013, the retail giant Target had its systems breached by a cyber-attack that affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts, causing Target to pay out $18.5 million in settlement fees; and
WHEREAS, in 2014, Home Depot's systems were breached and 50 million cardholders were affected, resulting in Home Depot agreeing to pay at least $19.5 million to compensate those individuals; and
WHEREAS, in 2017 the credit reporting agency Equifax was exposed as having been the subject of one of the most extensive hacks of our time, exposing and then concealing the personal information of millions; and
WHEREAS, Facebook operates a social networking website that allows people to communicate with their family, friends, and coworkers; and
WHEREAS, the company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information based on their own specific criteria and has over 2.2 billion active users worldwide; and
WHEREAS, Facebook's mission statement is "to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together," and notes that "[pjeople use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what's going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them;" and
WHEREAS, Cambridge Analytica is a privately held company that combines data mining and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process; and
WHEREAS, on March 17, 2018 both the New York Times and The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica used personal infonnation obtained from Facebook without permission, and under the pretext of c...
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