In December 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law two bills (A8872A and S2376B; collectively, the “Bills”) that amend New York’s Data Breach Notification Law.1 The Bills introduce a maximum thirty-day timeframe for notifying affected New York residents of a reportable “breach of the security of the system”2 under
On June 28, 2024, Pennsylvania enacted amendments to its Breach of Personal Information Notification Act (“BPINA”). These amendments contain a number of significant changes, including clarifying a key definition, adding a new notification obligation to the Attorney General, requiring organizations to provide credit monitoring services, and reducing the threshold to notify consumer reporting agencies. These amendments—which take effect today, September 26, 2024—bring Pennsylvania in line with many other states that have taken steps to strengthen their respective data breach notification laws.Continue Reading Pennsylvania Strengthens Data Breach Notification Law
On March 13, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that it had opened an investigation into the monumental cyberattack on Change Healthcare (“Change”), a unit of UnitedHealth Group (“UHG”). The attack is one of the largest assaults against the U.S. health care system, with far-reaching
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish the first cross-sectoral federal cybersecurity incident and ransomware payment reporting system.
As noted in an alert in March 2022, President Biden signed the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA) into law just over two
Tune in to Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, The Data Day, brought to you by the firm’s data, privacy & cybersecurity practice. This series focuses on the day-to-day effects that data has on all of our lives as well as other exciting and interesting legal and regulatory developments in the world of data, and
Looking back on 2023, the trend of privacy-based class actions has only increased, and it doesn’t seem poised to halt or even slow down in the new year. Businesses are feeling acutely the threat of future litigation. At the end of 2022, the hundreds of cross-industry respondents to the Annual Litigation Trends Survey cited cybersecurity, data protection, and data privacy as the second-highest ranked area of future concern for class actions, and their concerns turned out to be justified. From peeved Pixel plaintiffs to data breach defendants, class actions abounded this year.Continue Reading Dashing Through 2023’s Privacy Litigation Trends
Security may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking about GDPR and UK GDPR compliance, but recent matters indicate it should certainly be near the top of any compliance checklist.
Security of personal data is fundamental to every organization, and its significance scales depending on the type of data processing that takes place. Of the penalties issued for data protection infractions across the EU and UK in 2022 so far, over 70 include security, which is almost 20% of the total fines issued. Specifically, these fines were issued due to a breach of Article 32 of the GDPR/UK GDPR: failing to have appropriate technical and organizational measures in place to protect personal data. A breach of Article 32 of the GDPR or UK GDPR technically only attracts the “standard maximum” fine of €10/£8.7 million or 2% of global annual turnover, however the offence is often coupled with other transgressions, which has led to fines over €20 million.Continue Reading Data Protection: The Increasing GDPR/ UK GDPR Focus on Security
On October 5, 2022, Joe Sullivan, Uber’s former Chief Security Officer, was convicted of “obstruction of the proceedings of the Federal Trade Commission and misprision of felony in connection with the attempted cover-up of a 2016 hack at Uber.” He faces up to eight years in prison. The conviction marks the first time that an individual company executive has faced criminal charges related to an information security breach.Continue Reading Former Chief Security Officer of Uber Convicted for Mishandling 2016 Data Breach
On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed into law significant new federal data breach reporting legislation that could vastly expand data breach notice requirements far beyond regulated entities or entities processing personal data. Unceremoniously tucked as Division Y into the H.R. 2471 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of
On March 1, 2022, the Senate passed a data breach and cybersecurity bill that could vastly expand data breach notice requirements. The Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act (the “Senate Bill”), which now shifts to the House of Representatives, would require organizations in certain critical infrastructure sectors to report substantial cybersecurity incidents to the Department of Homeland Security within 72 hours after the organization reasonably believes the cyberincident has occurred, among other measures intended to enhance the nation’s cybersecurity posture. Covered organizations would also be required to report ransom payments within 24 hours of making a payment in response to a ransomware attack. These provisions are not limited to data breaches affecting personal data and would significantly expand the breadth of data breach reporting requirements to many commercial enterprises that have not focused on consumer privacy issues.
While the bill was criticized by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco for shifting cyber-focus from the DOJ/FBI to DHS/CISA, it remains likely to pass the House, where similar legislation was supported last year as part of the annual defense authorization package. In addition to its breach reporting provisions, the Senate Bill would also require or encourage new cybersecurity measures for federal agencies, clarify the roles of certain cybersecurity officials and authorize the federal contractor cybersecurity FedRAMP program for five years.Continue Reading Senate Approves Breach Reporting Legislation; Likely to Pass House