2007 was a dangerous year for the roughly 1,600 public companies and the many corporate officers and directors and other securities market participants in the western United States. The US Securities and Exchange Commission continued its vigorous scrutiny of corporate malfeasance (real or perceived), often in conjunction with federal criminal prosecutors.

In response to the growing number of data breaches in recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission or SEC) has recently proposed to improve the safeguarding of information by amending Regulation S-P.