Data Breach

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Ransomware – a demand for a monetary payment to regain access to one’s data or network – continues to rock the charts as cyber criminals’ go-to, get-rich-quick scheme. As we know, the pandemic spurred the work-from-home or hybrid movement that likely will continue for years to come. With more and more employees working from home, more data is being shared remotely, leaving the door open for missed or inadequate computer and technology security. Phishing and fraud schemes and social engineering methods used to demand ransom are particularly attractive as they target and take advantage of the number one security risk – a company’s people.
Continue Reading Multi-Factor Authentication: The New Norm for Cyber Insurance Coverage

You might think your run-of-the-mill privacy and cybersecurity training is sufficient. You might think that by “checking the box” on generic training you have fulfilled your duty and obligation to mitigate data privacy and cybersecurity attacks. You might think that general malware protection adequately secures your company’s data and you can move on with your everyday business efforts without concern.

Think again.
Continue Reading Think Again on Cybersecurity Training – Human Error Continues to Drive Numbers on Cybersecurity Attacks

On October 8, 2021, President Biden signed the bipartisan K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 (the “Act”) in response to K-12 educational institutions facing cyber-attacks across the United States. The types of cyber incidents targeting K-12 information systems include denial of service, phishing, ransomware and malware, and other unauthorized disclosures of personal information.

While the Act itself does not detail specific requirements for K-12 educational institutions, it seeks to address the increasing risk of cybersecurity incidents by authorizing the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to conduct a study on the specific cybersecurity risks currently facing K-12 educational institutions. The director has 120 days from the enactment of the Act to complete the study. The director will then have an additional 60 days to issue recommendations that include cybersecurity guidelines to assist K-12 educational institutions in responding to the cybersecurity threats described in the director’s study. In conjunction with cybersecurity recommendations, CISA will be developing an online training toolkit to educate school officials about the recommendations and to help ease the implementation of the recommendations by providing strategies for officials to take such action.
Continue Reading K-12 Cybersecurity Act: Federal Government Seeks to Improve Security for America’s Educational Institutions

Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, an affiliate of the Russia-linked criminal syndicate known as REvil succeeded in executing the single largest global ransomware attack on record with over one million firms affected worldwide. As a result of the intrusion, thousands of companies have reduced or entirely ceased operation. For example:

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Continue Reading It May Take a Village: What the REvil Holiday Attack Teaches Us About the Evolving Threat

I am often asked by clients and my partners alike, “What is the #1 thing companies should be doing to secure their data and systems?” Usually when I get requests to boil down everything involved in my practice area to one topic, I balk. And for good reason. However, this one is easy.

Multi-Factor Authentication or “MFA.” …

Continue Reading Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Please. Do it. Now.

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.…

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

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.

Over the years on Taft’s Privacy and Data Security Insights, we have written on the risk of data breaches and the specific impact on privacy, or the compromise of confidentiality of personally identifiable information. However, many clients forget to also consider the value in other information they possess, specifically proprietary information, information subject to trade secret, and intellectual property. Today we will discuss how failing to account for intellectual property in your data security program can be costly, especially in the event of a data breach.

Intellectual property and specifically patent protection is a critical component for the success of many U.S. businesses, both large and small. As the desire to obtain patent protection grows, so too does the occurrence of data theft and other data breaches.  Therefore, companies need to know whether an invention is still patentable if the propriety information underlying the invention is the subject of a data breach or other cyber security failure. The question applies whether a data breach is accidental or malicious and whether it is perpetrated by an outside source or by an employee of the company.  The answer is the same: the patent rights are likely forfeited.…

Continue Reading Data Breaches Ain’t Just About Privacy: Risking the Loss of Patent Rights by Data Breach with Subsequent Disclosure

Businesses in all industries and of all sizes are collecting data about their customers, potential clients, and workforce. This collection can be as simple as processing credit cards for purchases or gathering data about consumer behavior on websites or social media platforms, or can include a robust collection of sensitive financial, location, or health information. In the event that an incident occurs, a business is obligated to respond quickly to address the pitfall and potentially inform consumers that their information may have been subject to an unauthorized access according to applicable national or state laws. Navigating these unchartered waters usually involves bringing in counsel to assess whether a “breach” has occurred, how much, whose and what information was accessed, and to potentially prepare for litigation from those consumers whose data was subjected to the breach.

As part of this response, counsel often calls on cybersecurity experts to provide incident response services and breach analysis to understand the severity of the breach and the company’s data security posture. These forensic assessments can be used in a variety of ways, including helping determine the immediate steps that need to be taken to comply with data breach laws, ensure that the compromise is resolved, or troubleshoot potential weak points in the company’s cybersecurity safeguards to develop a stronger infrastructure to avoid future incidents.…

Continue Reading The Aftermath of a Breach: Evidentiary Protections Related to Forensic Investigations in Limbo