Law360, New York ( April 3, 2014, 6:17 PM EDT) -- Businesses and their lawyers nationwide were watching the Fourth Circuit to see whether the court would uphold the Federal Trade Commission's authority to seek redress on behalf of consumers who were damaged by unfair and deceptive cyber-security practices. The statutes giving the FTC its authority over unfair and deceptive trade practices — the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Privacy Act — were both enacted well before the Internet. As such, defendants in FTC v. Ross, argued that the commission lacked an express statutory mandate to redress cybersecurity problems. Civil Doc. No. 12-2340 (Fourth Cir. App. 2/25/14). Cybersecurity lawyers and administrative law gurus alike were waiting to see what the often conservative-leaning Fourth Circuit would say about the FTC's authority in this new world space....