A month after the DoJ notification, Forever 21 made the news public.
A month? Come on -- if there's one lesson that all businesses should learn from higher profile data breaches it's that there's no virtue -- and plenty of downside -- in delaying acknowledgment.
More than that, acknowledgment needs not only to be prompt, it needs to be prominent.
Take a look at the Forever 21 Web site. See anything acknowledging the problem? Look closer.
There it is, bottom left, near the trademark information (you may have to squint): IMPORTANT CUSTOMER INFO NOTICE (it's far fainter there than here.)
But that's not as faint (or as tiny) as the actual acknowledgment that pops up: (light) gray mousetype in long paragraphs that look (and read!) like they were written by a committee of lawyers. Not the sort of thing to reassure a consumer looking for information about the breach; not, for that mater, the sort of thing that helps the consumer find the information.
Look: if you're breached you need to get out in front of the story immediately, and do so in plain English (preferably from your company's president or CEO) at the head of your Web site, rather than sending the message that you're hiding something in the scrolldown.
It's best not to get breached, but if you do you need to be far more upfront and open than Forever 21 has been.