Privacy & Cybersecurity

We've been following the latest on the WannaCry ransomware attack that we first told you about over the weekend.

By now, you may have heard about the global ransomware attacks affecting organizations throughout the world. Estimates range from between 150,000 to 200,000 groups in nearly 150 countries, and those numbers could be higher.

In another example of increased restriction on the rights of non-U.S. Citizens, last week the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) published a policy memorandum limiting the privacy rights of immigrants and foreign nationals under the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. 

Snatching victory of a sort from the jaws of defeat, shareholders who brought a derivative action alleging that the 2014 Home Depot data breach resulted from officers’ and directors’ breaches of fiduciary duties have reached a settlement of those claims.

It was a busy April for the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) (see our prior post on a settlement from earlier in April). On April 20, OCR announced a Resolution Agreement with Center for Children’s Digestive Health, S.C. (“CCDH”) related to CCDH’s failure to enter into a business associate agreement with a paper medical records storage vendor. 

Today's Guest Post courtesy of Bill Kyrouz, Mintz Levin's CISO:
Have you come to the conclusion that you need a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) to support your small to medium sized enterprise but don’t know where to start?

When data thieves steal payment card data, consumers suffer no legally cognizable injuries. Card issuers absorb the fraudulent charges and replace the affected cards.  Because fraudulent charges are not billed to consumers, they do not show up on consumers’ credit reports or otherwise affect their credit ratings. 

After a quiet winter there has been significant activity in state legislatures to enact, strengthen or clarify their data breach notification statutes. The latest happenings are summarized below and we have updated our “Mintz Matrix” to reflect these new and pending laws. 

While your business may indeed be a "victim" when hit by a phishing attack, your enterprise can also be responsible for violations of law associated with the incident. Earlier this week, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a $400,000 settlement with Metro Community Provider Network (“MCPN”) related to a 2012 HIPAA breach caused by a phishing scam.

At last week's Health Care Compliance Association's annual “Compliance Institute," Iliana Peters, HHS Office for Civil Rights’ Senior Advisor for HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement, provided a thorough update of HIPAA enforcement trends as well as a road map to OCR’s current and future endeavors.

We are anxiously waiting to learn the fate of the data breach notification statute recently passed by state lawmakers in New Mexico. The bill remains on the desk of the governor who has until the end of the week to sign the legislation into law.

The FBI has issued new guidance specifically applicable to medical and dental facilities regarding the cybersecurity risk of File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) servers operating in “anonymous” mode. FTPs are routinely used to transfer information between network hosts.

Wearable technology continues to do a full-court press on the marketplace and in the process, the step counters of the world and health apps tied to devices capable of tracking real-time biostatistics, are revolutionizing the way companies think about wellness.

Since September, the Mintz Privacy Webinar Series has focused on the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to help businesses understand the reach and scope of the GDPR and prepare for the potentially game-changing privacy regulation.

“Don’t make promises that you don’t intend to keep” is an admonishment received by every child and delivered by every parent. This pithy maxim is equally applicable to consent orders entered into with regulatory authorities. Indeed, Upromise’s failure to abide by it is costing the company $500,000 in the form of a civil penalty from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

We are well into March Madness … and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
You may have already had your bracket busted by now…..but you should have Mintz Levin’s Third Annual Employment Law Summit on your schedule and the panel on Cybersecurity and Employee Data Breaches may help you avoid a security incident/personal data buster.

Recently, a Google researcher discovered a serious flaw with the content delivery network (CDN) provided by CloudFlare. This vulnerability has now become known as Cloudbleed, in a nod to the earlier Heartbleed SSL vulnerability. 

Counsel for a class of card-issuing banks filed a settlement agreement on March 8 proposing a class settlement to resolve claims arising from the 2014 theft of payment card data from Home Depot point-of-sale terminals.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) goes into effect in a little over fourteen months and from a quick glance at our bullet points analysis you can see there is a lot to consider. 

Last week, Snap Inc. (“Snap” or the “Company”) – the parent company of the wildly popular app Snapchat (“Snapchat” or the “App”) – became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in the biggest tech IPO since Alibaba in 2014.