April Brings Showers … and Changes to State Data Breach Notification Laws

Over the past few weeks there have been noteworthy changes to data breach notification acts within several states. Of importance, New Mexico enacted its first notification law while Tennessee and Virginia amended existing legislation. New Mexico On April 6, 2017 New Mexico enacted HB 15, the Data Breach Notification Act, making it the 48th state to pass a notification law. The Act goes into effect on June 16, 2017, leaving Alabama and South Dakota as the only states without notification requirements. The Act, drawing… Continue Reading

New York Issues Final Cybersecurity Regulation

On February 13, 2017, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) adopted the final version of its first-of-its-kind cybersecurity regulation, “Cybersecurity Requirements For Financial Services Companies” (23 NYCRR 500). This regulation took effect on March 1, 2017. The final regulation reflects several of the comments offered during the final comment period that concluded on January 27, 2017. For a prior list of significant changes from the initial version to the second version, please see our blog post located here. Most of… Continue Reading

NYDFS Issues Updated Cybersecurity Regulation

The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) recently issued an updated version of its proposed cybersecurity regulation, “Cybersecurity Requirements For Financial Services Companies” (23 NYCRR 500). The updated proposed regulation reflects several of the comments offered during the initial public notice and comment period that concluded on November 14, 2016. Some of the most noteworthy changes in the revision are as follows:
  • Section 500.04 — NYDFS clarified that while a Covered Entity must designate a qualified individual to perform the responsibilities
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Despite Recent High-Profile Dismissals, Wendy’s Shareholders Try Again with Cybersecurity-Related Derivative Lawsuit

The resilient plaintiff’s bar is not backing down from their quest to hold directors and officers personally liable for corporate misconduct that leads to cybersecurity breaches. Taking guidance from the failures which resulted in a string of dismissals of high-profile cybersecurity-related shareholder derivative lawsuits, a shareholder of the fast food-chain The Wendy’s Company is taking another shot to impose liability on corporate leadership for failing to take precautions against cyber-attacks. To be clear, these derivative cases are trying to hold the directors and officers liable… Continue Reading

The Yahoo Class Action: Plaintiff’s Bar Finds a New Cottage Industry

The only “surprise” in the Yahoo class action complaint, filed Friday, September 23, 2016, is that Yahoo issued a press release announcing the breach a mere one day earlier.  The class action complaint, undersigned by three law firms in San Francisco, Boca Raton, and New York, seeks certification for: “All persons within the United States whose personal information was accessed following the data breach that Yahoo announced in a press release on September 22, 2016.”  Indeed, the complaint makes a number of allegations relating directly… Continue Reading

Judge Rules No Standing to Pursue Fear Of “Hacker Harm”

Last week a judge in the Southern District of Illinois trimmed several claims from a class action complaint made against Chrysler and Harman International Industries stemming from a 2015 WIRED magazine article. The July 21, 2015 WIRED article described the author’s experience of being a “digital crash-test dummy, a willing subject on whom [two hackers] could test the car-hacking research they’d been doing over the past year.” Less than two weeks after the article was published, on August 4, 2015, the plaintiffs filed their class… Continue Reading

RAND Study Estimates Lower Cyber-Incident Costs

According to a new study by the RAND Corporation, published in the Oxford Journal of Cybersecurity, the average cost of a typical cyber breach for an American company has been estimated at $200,000, significantly less than the $1,000,000 figure suggested by other organizations, such as the Ponemon Institute. The study analyzed a private data set of 12,000 cyber incidents over a decade based on corporate losses compiled for the insurance industry. “Relative to all the other risks companies face, the cyber risks often aren’t… Continue Reading

Cybersecurity Down on the Farm

The FBI and Department of Agriculture have issued a Private Industry Notification to increase awareness among farmers that growing reliance on precision agriculture technology, aka “smart farming,” brings increased vulnerability to cyberattacks. While the notification did not suggest attackers could gain control of physical machinery, unauthorized access to farm-level data regarding crop availability and pricing could be used to exploit US agriculture resources and market trends. Earlier this year, for example, the USDA and Microsoft hosted a worldwide competition to design data visualization tools that… Continue Reading

New Executive Orders and Budget Proposals Contribute to Federal Cyber Security Efforts

The U.S. Government took several steps on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 to deal with the ever-constant issue of data privacy. First, President Barack Obama issued two Executive Orders. The first Executive Order creates the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. This new Commission will fall under the U.S. Department of Commerce and be “composed of not more than 12 members appointed by the President” though Congressional leadership can offer recommendations. The order, among other things, requires the Commission to make recommendations in several key areas including:… Continue Reading

Better Late Than Never: U.S. and EU Regulators Reach Data Privacy Agreement

Officials from the United States and European Union have reached a tentative agreement regarding transfers of personal data by European individuals and businesses to the United States. As stated in the agreement, “This new framework will protect the fundamental rights of Europeans where their data is transferred to the United States and ensure legal certainty for businesses.” When finalized, it will replace a previous safe harbor agreement between the U.S. and EU, which was struck down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in October… Continue Reading