Court Injunctions are the Thoughts and Prayers of Data Breach Response

The author examines recent high-profile breaches — a ransomware attack on HWL Ebsworth (ALPHV/BlackCat) and a large Qantas customer data breach — arguing that court injunctions seeking to prevent publication of stolen data provide limited real-world protection because criminal actors ignore them and data is still publicly dumped; the piece highlights impacts on victims, third-party services (e.g., Have I Been Pwned), and the primary beneficiaries of injunctions (organisations and shareholders) rather than affected customers.