The Colonial Pipeline cyberattack prompted the issuance of a long-awaited executive order (EO) on improving U.S. cybersecurity. The EO mandates that, within six months, all federal agencies implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and both at-rest and in-transit encryption. It also calls for agencies to comprehensively log, share, and analyze information about cyber incidents and creates a
Regulatory Supervision
Biometric Privacy Law Expansions and Private Rights of Action
The days of only seeing biometric techniques in spy films are well behind us. A simple thumbprint can open a phone. Systems like Alexa can recognize your voice and play your favorite music. Some banks even allow customers to make payments by using voice command and fingerprint recognition.
In 2008, Illinois became the first state…
Privacy Requirements under COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program
Many relief programs have been implemented over the past year in response to COVID-19, and keeping up with the changing requirements for these programs can be daunting. A new twist in the requirements is the mandate for implementation of privacy requirements under the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Here are some details about the Emergency Rental…
FTC Eyes Vendor Oversight in Safeguards Rule Settlement
On December 15, 2020, the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Ascension Data & Analytics, LLC, a mortgage industry analytics company, related to alleged violations of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (GLBA) Safeguards Rule. In particular, the FTC claimed that Ascension Data & Analytics’ vendor, OpticsML, left “tens of thousands of consumers[’]” sensitive personal information exposed “to…