Coleman's legal woes mount

By: Manu Raju
Politico
March 12, 2009

Former Sen. Norm Coleman's political and legal problems over the security breach at his campaign website may get worse, with new questions about whether his team violated state law by not reporting the problems earlier.

The campaign's disclosure Wednesday night that a hacker may have gained access to about 5,000 donors' financial information will almost certainly deter new online contributions, further hindering Coleman's ability to raise money for the ongoing recount lawsuit against Democrat Al Franken..

On the legal side, experts say there's a valid question about whether the campaign violated a state law that requires any person or business that conducts business in the state to notify consumers immediately that their personal information has been breached. As early as Jan. 28, Minnesota bloggers reported that personal security information could be downloaded by anyone after a brief crash of the Coleman for Senate website.

"Assuming that the hack occurred in January and not just a couple days ago, and he didn't notify donors, then he probably violated state laws," said David Schultz, a professor at the Hamline University School of Business in St. Paul, Minn.

(More here.)