FCC Confirms COVID-19 Pandemic Constitutes Emergency Under TCPA
3/23/20
By: Matthew Foree
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has just issued a Declaratory Ruling confirming that the coronavirus pandemic constitutes an emergency under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). The Declaratory Ruling can be found here. Consequently, “hospitals, healthcare providers, …
HHS Waives Some HIPAA Sanctions During the Coronavirus Pandemic
3/20/20
By: David Cole
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued two important bulletins this week in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Each one announced that OCR will temporarily waive certain sanctions and penalties for noncompliance with HIPAA Rules to …
Cyber Attack on HHS is a Reminder for Businesses to Remain Vigilant About Cybersecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
3/17/20
By: Renata Hoddinott
Amidst all the information and news flooding the internet regarding COVID-19, another troubling headline emerged this morning: an unknown actor launched a cyber attack on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Sunday. The attack …
Eleventh Circuit Expands Insurance Coverage Under Commercial Crime Policies
3/10/20
By: Bill Buechner
In a closely-watched case involving the scope of coverage under a commercial crime policy, the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision in December holding that an insurer’s commercial crime policy provided coverage for an all-too-familiar email spoofing scheme …
New Jersey Moving Toward Adopting Privacy Legislation like the GDPR and CCPA
3/5/20
By: Justin Boron
New Jersey legislators are pushing forward on new data privacy legislation with disclosure and consent requirements that are akin to—and in some instances more burdensome than—the California Consumer Privacy Act.
The CCPA—which took effect in January this …
States are Busy on the Cyber Front
2/19/20
By: Amy C. Bender
2020 is off to a busy start, with several states taking action on cybersecurity legislation and issuing other legal updates. Highlights include:
California – California’s Attorney General has issued revised proposed regulations regarding the California Consumer …
Beware Phony (or Exaggerated) Software Piracy Claims
2/3/20
By: Jeff Alitz
For more than a decade, software companies or software trade groups/alliances have pursued aggressive cost-recovery strategies against customers and former customers for their alleged unauthorized use (i.e, no license available) of software and other intellectual capital published …
Two-Factor Authentication—Not Broken Yet, But the Bad Guys Are Doing Their Worst
1/27/20
By: Barry Miller
If a cybersecurity gold standard exists, it is two-factor authentication (“2FA”).
Or it was.
As the name implies, 2FA is a two-level approach. Level one usually is a password. The second level is typically a random digital …
Ransomware Attacks Reached Unprecedented Numbers in 2019
1/15/20
By: Melissa Santalone
According to a study published by Emsisoft Malware Lab, an unparalleled number of ransomware attacks hit U.S. businesses and government agencies in 2019. In total, 113 state and municipal governments and agencies, 764 healthcare providers, and 89 …
A Recent Study on Cybersecurity Among Small Businesses
12/18/19
By: Michael Kouskoutis
A recently published report, entitled “Under Attack: The State of MSP Cybersecurity in 2019,” surveyed 200 managed service providers across the country to evaluate the state of cybersecurity among smaller businesses. (A managed service provider …
The Ethical Duty of Technology Competence – The Day is Coming in California
12/5/19
By: Renata Hoddinott
Recognizing the emergence of technology, its impact on the practice of law, and the importance of lawyers understanding technology, the American Bar Association modified its Model Rules in 2012 to make clear a lawyer’s duty of competence …
Latest Study in Cybersecurity Awareness and End User Behaviors
9/5/19
By: Michael Kouskoutis
Cybersecurity awareness company Proofpoint recently published its fourth-annual Beyond the Phish report, which analyzes end-user behavior and employee knowledge on cybersecurity. Gathering from over 130 million data points across 14 categories, 16 industries and over 20 departments, …