Cyber Security

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The White House issued this memorandum to corporate executives and business leaders this week in which it stresses the need for urgent vigilance in implementing many of the best information security best practices we commonly discuss on our Privacy and Data Security Insights blog.  The memo contains good information that any business of any size should consider and implement as quickly as possible to bolster its defenses to what has been an onslaught of ransomware attacks in the past year.  
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Continue Reading White House Memo Stresses Need For Vigilance in Defending Against Ransomware Attacks

As we have been writing over the past year, COVID-19 has presented a huge opportunity for hackers to wreak havoc on businesses and consumers.  While confidentiality of data is usually the focus with such data breaches, system and data access is also at risk of attack by these same threat actors.  We have seen this play out on a national scale the past couple of weeks with the pipeline shutdown due to ransomware.

According to the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”), insurance claims resulting from ransomware increased by 180% between 2018 and 2019, and almost doubled that amount in 2020. (Indeed, the pipeline company paid a ransom of $4.4 million.)  As a result, the U.S. cyber insurance market was $3.15 billion in 2019 and is expected to exceed $20 billion in the next five years. And just recently, a carrier announced it would no longer pay out for ransomware claims in France.   Earlier this year,  in response to the increase in ransomware attacks, the NYDFS issued seven best practices (“Framework”) that insurers should adopt, including a recommendation that insurers should stop paying ransom payments. Insurers should be aware of what the Framework entails and what this means for them when implementing cybersecurity programs and trying to obtain insurance coverage in the future.

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Continue Reading NYDFS Answers Age Old “To Pay the Ransom or Not Pay the Ransom” Question with Definitive DON’T

In response to recommendations contained in the Solarium Commission report and the Solar Winds cybersecurity incident, President Biden issued an Executive Order on May 12, 2021, outlining new requirements for information technology providers that do business with the federal government. The purpose of the requirements are to protect federal networks from malicious cyber-attacks and to improve information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues, thereby strengthening the United States’ ability to respond to incidents when they…
Continue Reading Strengthening U.S. Cyber Security – New Executive Order

Guess what?  Last Thursday, the first Thursday in May, was World Password Day. Right? You didn’t even know it.  We in the Privacy and Data Security Practice Group thought it would be a perfect opportunity to talk about the importance of the most basic, but still effective way to safeguard your accounts and data. In the early days of the internet, a simple password was all you might need to adequately protect the one or two accounts you might have had. Your desktop login, your email, and maybe some early version of social media. Password security was taken so lightly; it wasn’t unusual for passwords to be stored in a plain text file on a desktop or on a sticky note at your desk. Those days are over. Well, they should be.
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Continue Reading Celebrating World Password Day. Responsibly.

Taft partners Scot Ganow and Phil Schenkenberg will be featured speakers for the “Cybersecurity for In-house Legal Counsel” Seminar on Oct. 26. The virtual seminar will help in-house counsel understand the legal constructs and terminology widely used within the cybersecurity space, and to provide practical ways they can be more responsive and efficient when cyber issues arise. Taft is a sponsor of the event.

Ganow will present “Legal Overview and Key Cyber Risks for Businesses,” which covers the laws, regulations,

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Continue Reading Taft Partners Ganow and Schenkenberg to Speak at “Cybersecurity for In-House Legal Counsel” Seminar

With the focus rightly on the challenges presented by COVID-19, it is also important to keep an eye on what is happening in the world of data privacy and security regulation. One such development involves a little known application of a financial services privacy law to the world of higher education.

On Feb. 28, 2020, the Federal Student Aid office (“FSA”) of the Department of Education (the “DoE”) posted an Electronic Announcement, advising all entities with an active Program Participation Agreement with the DoE (“Institutions”) that the DoE will begin strictly enforcing the requirement that each Institution must comply with the data privacy and cybersecurity requirements set forth in 16 C.F.R. Part 314 and administered by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”).

Although all Institutions have been subject to these compliance requirements for some time (technical application dates back to 2003, and auditing requirements date back to 2016), enforcement actions by the DoE and FTC in the wake of non-compliant audits have been lacking. No longer. According to FSA, that’s about the change.

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Continue Reading Higher Education Institutions Must Be Prepared: “Enhanced” Cybersecurity Audits are Coming

On Thursday, March 26, 2020, the Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economy Security Act (the “CARES Act”), which provides economic relief for individuals, businesses and industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, some provisions specifically relate to nascent privacy and data security concerns to be addressed both during and after the pandemic:

  • Financial Assistance for Training: Qualifying small businesses and minority owned businesses may apply for financial assistance in the form of grants to cover training and advising for employees on risks of and mitigation of cybersecurity threats in remote customer service or telework practices. The economic landscape following the COVID-19 pandemic will highlight businesses’ increased reliance upon technology, and the nascent need for increased attention to data security education. The financial assistance available to small and minority-owned businesses provides a great opportunity for companies to get ahead of the curve with respect to myriad information security threats.
  • Credit Reporting: The Fair Credit Reporting Act is revised so that furnishers of consumer and payment information, who make an accommodation with respect to one or more payments on a consumer’s account or credit obligation, must report the account or obligation as “current,” unless it was delinquent prior to the accommodation.
  • Public Health Service Act Amended to Conform with HIPAA: The Public Health Service Act is amended to include breach notification and consent requirements consistent with HIPAA. In addition, within one year after the date of enactment, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall update 45 C.F.R 164.520 so that covered entities and entities creating or maintaining records relating to substance abuse education, training, treatment, and research shall provide easily understandable notices of privacy practices. As a result, some entities not currently regulated by HIPAA will need to adapt to some of the HIPAA requirements related to breach notification and notice of privacy practices.
  • Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: $9 million is allocated for supply chain and information analysis, as well as impacted critical infrastructure coordination.
  • Funding for Public Health Surveillance: $500 million is allocated for public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization.

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Continue Reading COVID-19 Bulletin: CARES Act Provides Attention to Privacy & Data Security Precautions

In our previous COVID-19 bulletin, we discussed the importance of companies maintaining information system and data security while allowing employees to work remotely. Over the last week, as people scramble to identify trustworthy information about the spread of COVID-19, how they can protect themselves, and how they can get tested, spammers and scammers have taken advantage of vulnerable telecommuters. For example, in just the past week, media outlets have reported on the following scams:

  • Email Phishing. According to a Kaspersky study and the FTC, email phishing schemes include the use of organizations’ names that would normally seem legitimate. Such emails appear to be coming from representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO). The emails have the CDC or WHO logos and headings or have email addresses that, in a quick glance, look to be official (such as cdc-gov.org). The links in these emails may infect the user’s device with malware or even ask them to enter in an email and password for their Microsoft Outlook account.
  • Domains and Apps. There are website domains that appear to keep track of COVID-19 updates and health information. Instead, these domains prompt users to download apps to access this information. In particular, there is an Android App that, once downloaded, infects the device with ransomware and demands payment or else the data on the device will be erased. Additionally, there is an interactive infections and deaths map circulating that is being used to spread password-stealing malware.
  • Goods Delivery. While goods and supplies, such as cleaning and household supplies, are running out at local stores, there are online sellers purporting to have these items in stock. Instead, they are scams that take your payment and never deliver your ordered items. Employers, or employees in charge of supplies, should be cautious of online retailers and conduct additional research into the seller to verify legitimacy.
  • Fake Charities. As with any major event or crisis, there are scammers trying to take advantage of people’s good intentions. This can take form in fake charities or fake donation pages. The fake charity can be a completely made up organization or one that closely resembles names of established charities.

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Continue Reading Don’t Let COVID-19 Lure You In: Phishing and Malware Attacks Skyrocket During Coronavirus Crisis

As many employers are considering sending employees home to protect them and other employees from the threat of the COVID-19 virus, it is extremely important to not increase your data security risk while you attempt to reduce the risk to employee and customer health. The following are some best practices for any employees working remotely, whether temporarily or permanently from locations outside your office and (hopefully secure) network.

  • Establish clear guidance and expectations to your employees.
    • All remote computer and

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Continue Reading COVID-19 Bulletin: Sending Employees Home? Don’t compromise information security in the process.

What’s happening?

The one topic, as of late, that tops the list of incoming phone calls to our Privacy and Data Security practice seems to be from a client reporting that either:

  1. The client paid a bogus invoice to a fraudulent account as a result of a communication from someone who looked just like a trusted payee; OR
  2. The client’s long-standing, regularly-paying customer has been strangely behind a couple of months on making payments to the client. Upon follow up, the client finds out the customer received a change in payment instruction reportedly from the client via email and has been sending the client’s payments to another banking account via ACH.

Inevitably, in either case, the payment account is bogus. The recipient failed to check the validity of the email requesting the change in payment practices, such as a new bank account, or possibly moving to ACH or EFT for payments instead of mailing checks. The recipient might have recognized the sender’s name, email address and even observed the expected company branding and logos in the body of the email and signature line. But, rather than pause, place a call or verify the request and account validity, the recipient quickly makes the change and the payment is sent. Frequently, clients aren’t aware of the theft until it’s too late. The consequences are harsh, as getting the money back is not always easy to do, if at all possible. While there are sometimes remedies through bank action or even law enforcement, the speed with which such payments are made and money is removed make it difficult to make a company whole again.

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Continue Reading Kiss that money goodbye! Why you must scrutinize payment processing changes at every level of your business.