Matthew Yarbrough advises clients in the areas of cybersecurity, data privacy, intellectual property, corporate fraud, and white collar investigations, and defends businesses in matters concerning internet fraud, privacy violations, and consumer data breaches. Throughout his career, he has advised businesses, state and federal governments, and individuals.
Since 1996, Mr. Yarbrough has served as lead investigative, trial, and/or advisor on more than 2,000 privacy, cybersecurity, and data breach incidents in the U.S. and internationally. He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional: United States (CIPP/US) and has advised and counseled clients on the following:
- Advised clients on investigations and enforcement actions resulting from alleged data security and privacy violations by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Office of Civil Rights (OCR), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and state attorneys general, including multistate task forces.
- Managing FTC consent orders and civil investigating demands in connection with data security incidents.
- Advised major health care providers on all aspects of HITECH security breaches, including OCR and state enforcement.
- Advised numerous major retailers, financial institutions, and other companies on proactive cybersecurity readiness, including developing and conducting full-scale tabletop (executive mock data breach) exercises for c-suite executives and boards of directors.
- Advised numerous major retailers on security breaches resulting from criminal tampering of point-of-sale terminals and ATMs, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Secret Service involvement, forensic investigations, breach notification, and PR efforts surrounding crisis management.
- Counseled numerous technology companies (both as publishers and advertisers) on data collection and sharing issues, including online behavioral advertising and Big Data initiatives, as well as use of geolocation data and EU-U.S. Privacy Shield certification.
- Conducted comprehensive privacy and information security policy assessments of major U.S. gaming, retail, entertainment, hospitality, and consumer goods companies, including extensive data flow mapping, implementation of multiple privacy policies, information governance, security, and records management procedures.
- Counseled major retail and consumer goods companies on privacy issues associated with the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) and data collection from mobile devices.
- Advised multiple clients on privacy, monitoring, and surveillance issues under federal, state, and international laws and prepared related customer and HR policies.
Mr. Yarbrough served as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) in the Northern District of Texas, prosecuting numerous high-profile and complex white collar criminal cases involving health care, IP, banking, money laundering, securities, business fraud schemes, and terrorism. While at the U.S. Attorney's Office, he led the Cybercrimes and Criminal Intellectual Property Task Force, prosecuting major cyberattack cases, including the first data intercept of a hacker ring known as the "PhoneMasters" case. He was tapped by former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn as special counsel to assist in the creation of the Texas Internet Bureau to fight internet and telecommunications fraud, data breaches, and identity theft.
Mr. Yarbrough has lectured and trained several multinational companies and executives on topics concerning crisis management, corporate compliance, data privacy, cybersecurity breaches, and the defense of government enforcement actions. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, teaching "Technology Litigation & Hi-Tech Crimes" and "Trial Advocacy." His cases have been widely publicized in national periodicals, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, and ZD Net, as well as numerous news outlets around the world.