Following the Equifax data breach in 2017, there has been heightened awareness surrounding how credit reporting agencies handle consumers’ personal information. At the same time, recent high-profile attacks, such as the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, have focused media and regulatory attention on vulnerabilities associated with unpatched systems. In response to these two concerns, on January 10, … Continue Reading
On January 9, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting Act by voice vote. The Act directs the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to prepare a report describing the policies and procedures that DHS developed to coordinate the cyber vulnerability disclosures. Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 … Continue Reading
Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team has posted an illuminating three-part series on the Covington Digital Health blog that covers key questions entities should be asking as they seek to fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle. In the first part of the series, the Digital Health team answers key regulatory questions … Continue Reading
On December 5, 2017, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) announced the publication of a second draft of a proposed update to the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (“Cybersecurity Framework”), Version 1.1, Draft 2. NIST has also published an updated draft Roadmap to the Cybersecurity Framework, which “details public and private sector … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Carpenter v. U. S., a case that involved the collection of 127 days of Petitioner Thomas Carpenter’s cell site location information as part of an investigation into several armed robberies. We attended the argument to gain any insights into how the Supreme Court may resolve this … Continue Reading
On October 24, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) released a set of policy principles to guide the technology industry and governments in their approach to artificial intelligence (AI). The organization—which includes Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, and Microsoft—intends for its guidelines to help AI meet its potential to solve important problems while minimizing any … Continue Reading
In a speech delivered at the United States Naval Academy on October 10, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein waded into the public debate between data privacy and law enforcement interests. As part of a discussion moderated by former Covington cybersecurity attorney Jeff Kosseff, Rosenstein’s remarks discussed cyber issues facing law enforcement with a particular focus … Continue Reading
By Joseph Jones and Ruth Scoles Mitchell On October 3, 2017, the Irish High Court referred Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Limited [2016 No. 4809 P.] to the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”). The case, commonly referred to as Schrems II, is based on a complaint by Max Schrems concerning the transfer … Continue Reading
As Covington kicks off Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a series of weekly articles, preventative tips, and Q&As developed by our cybersecurity practice professionals, it’s worth recollecting how much our cybersecurity landscape has changed over the last twenty-plus years, and how the law has responded to these evolving challenges. Although the late 1990s saw the first … Continue Reading
On September 19, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed three of the six counts in the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) January 2017 complaint against D-Link Systems, Inc., allowing the FTC until October 20, 2017 to amend its complaint. The FTC’s complaint alleged that D-Link engaged in unfair and deceptive … Continue Reading
On our sister blog, CovingtonDigitalHealth, our global cross-practice digital health team has launched a three-part series on the key questions the technology, life sciences and communications industries should be considering as they fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle. Read the first post in the series here.… Continue Reading
By Benjamin Duke, Matt Schlesinger, and Scott Levitt [This article was also published as a Client Alert.] Two recent federal district court decisions involving computer “spoofing” scams highlight the uncertainty about whether such incidents may be covered under standard “computer fraud” provisions in widely used crime insurance forms. The conflicting results in these cases provide … Continue Reading
The closely watched lawsuit alleging Spokeo, Inc., violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) may proceed, after a federal appeals court ruled — on remand from the Supreme Court — that publication of the inaccuracies alleged by the plaintiff would constitute a sufficiently “concrete” harm to give the plaintiff standing to sue in federal court. … Continue Reading
By Alex Berengaut [This article also was published in Law360.] In May 2017, the “WannaCry” malware was used to launch a worldwide ransomware cyberattack. WannaCry encrypted files on victim computers and demanded a ransom payable in bitcoin to provide the encryption key. The attack was stopped when a British security researcher, Marcus Hutchins, accidentally discovered … Continue Reading
By Susan Cassidy, Jenny Martin, and Catlin Meade The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) released on August 15, 2017 its proposed update to Special Publication (“SP”) 800-53. NIST SP 800-53, which was last revised in 2014, provides information security standards and guidelines, including baseline control requirements, for implementation on federal information systems under … Continue Reading
On August 1, 2017, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced legislation (fact sheet) that would establish minimum cybersecurity standards for Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices sold to the U.S. Government. As Internet-connected devices become increasingly ubiquitous and susceptible to evolving and complex cyber threats, the proposed bill attempts to safeguard the security of executive agencies’ … Continue Reading
Customers’ allegations that they face a substantial risk of identity theft as a result of a 2014 data breach are sufficiently plausible to allow their suit against health insurer CareFirst to proceed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held in an August 1 decision. CareFirst discovered in April 2015 — and announced … Continue Reading
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released a voluntary framework for organizations to use in the development of a formal program to receive reports of network, software, and system vulnerabilities, and to disclose vulnerabilities identified in other organizations’ environments. This framework provides private entities a series of steps to establish a formal program … Continue Reading
A bill pending in the California legislature, if passed, would create new obligations for manufacturers of “connected devices.” S.B. 327 (also known as the “Teddy Bear and Toaster Act”) would operate somewhat differently than existing laws, such as the California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”). Security obligations. Manufacturers of connected devices that sell those devices … Continue Reading
By Dan Cooper and Rosie Klement On July 26, 2017, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) published Opinion 1-15 (the “Opinion”) on the proposed agreement between the European Union and Canada on the transfer and processing of passenger name record (“PNR”) data (the “Agreement”). The Agreement was signed in 2014, but the CJEU … Continue Reading
By Lisa Peets, Ezra Steinhardt, and Rosie Klement On July 14, 2017, the Impact Assessment Institute (“IAI”) (an independent institute committed to impartial impact assessment and scientific evaluation of policy and legislation in the EU) published a study assessing the impact assessment carried out by the European Commission in connection with the Commission’s proposal for … Continue Reading
On May 16, 2017, Governor Jay Inslee signed into law H.B. 1493—Washington’s first statute governing how individuals and non-government entities collect, use, and retain “biometric identifiers,” as defined in the statute. The law prohibits any “person” from “enroll[ing] a biometric identifier in a database for a commercial purpose, without first providing notice, obtaining consent, or … Continue Reading
In a new post on the Covington Digital Health blog, our colleagues discuss a new European Cloud in Health Advisory Council whitepaper calling for a review of European healthcare data protection rules holding back greater adoption of cloud computing and AI; and for more discussion about the ethics and governance of re-use of patient data for research and planning. To read … Continue Reading
On May 11, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure” (the “Order”). The long-anticipated directive was issued months after the White House originally planned to release a cybersecurity order in February. Since then, revised drafts of the order were circulated, including a version from February … Continue Reading
