The company I work for hired a company to do some work on our system almost a year back. Just recently we had a data leak due which we traced back to a laptop used by said company that worked on our network. While we use a site called datakillers.com for data destruction the data came off a laptop that accessed to network remotely and didn't belong to the company. Sadly the data that leaked included several customers private information and now several of them have taken steps to sue us. While I just work for the company and not in any way responsible I am curious as to how this will turn out and was wondering if any one knows if our company will be liable or if the company we hired will be effected since it was their mistake that resulted in the data leak. I do understand that any comments will be opinions and not legal advice.
Regarding the fact pattern stated above; it is my belief that the company would be liable to its customers, but that the outside contractor would be liable to the company for any loses it sustained, including its legal fees. Large legal fees for the company should be expected, and collection from the outside contractor for the judgments to creditors and legal fees could be a problem based on their location and worth.