In a ruling that may have significant impact on the recent wave of biometric privacy suits, an Illinois state appeals court held that plaintiffs must claim actual harm to be considered an “aggrieved person” covered by Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), in a dispute arising from the alleged unlawful collection of fingerprints from a … Continue Reading
Last February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. The scam, which targets businesses during tax season, was also “spreading to other sectors, including school districts, tribal organizations and nonprofits.” In August 2017, the IRS renewed its warning to tax professionals and businesses as part of … Continue Reading
A data breach occurs in which an outside individual obtains your company’s employees’ W-2 forms including social security numbers, addresses, and salary information. As a result, your company notifies all affected employees, explains what occurred, and offers a complimentary two-year membership to a service that helps detect misuse of personal information. Is your company liable … Continue Reading
In Minnesota, 97% of the 25,226 allegations of elder abuse (neglect, physical abuse, unexplained serious injuries and thefts) in state-licensed senior facilities in 2016 were never investigated. This prompted Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, to announce plans last week to form a task force to find out why. As one might expect, Minnesota is not … Continue Reading
The United State Supreme Court recently denied certiorari in Nosal v. United States, 16-1344, declining to weigh in on the scope of unauthorized access under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). The Ninth Circuit held in Nosal that David Nosal violated the CFAA by using his past assistant’s password to access his former employer’s … Continue Reading
As reported on our Global Immigration Blog, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a notice regarding scam email requests for I-9 information. According to USCIS, employers have received scam emails that appear to come from USCIS. These scam emails come from a fraudulent email address (news@uscis.gov) and the body of the email may contain USCIS and … Continue Reading
On November 2nd, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced his proposal of the SHIELD Act – Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act – a bill that would heighten data security requirements for companies and better protect New York residents from data breaches of their personal information. “It’s clear that New York’s … Continue Reading
An Illinois nursing home is facing a putative class action lawsuit filed by a worker who argues that the facility’s required fingerprint scan for timekeeping poses a threat to their privacy, and violates Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). From July 2017 to October 2017, at least 26 employment class actions based on the BIPA … Continue Reading
A coalition of the Information Technology Industry Council, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center, Intel, and Samsung, recently released a report that puts out a call for the creation and implementation of a national strategy to invest, innovate and accelerate development and deployment of the Internet of Things (“IoT”). … Continue Reading
We are proud to once again announce that the Workplace Privacy Report has been nominated for The Expert Institute’s Best Legal Blog Competition. From a field of thousands of nominees, the Workplace Privacy Report has received enough nominations to join one of the largest competitions for legal blog writing online today. If you enjoy the Workplace … Continue Reading
After hearing a lot lately about big companies suffering data breaches, it is important to remember that, according to inc.com, half of all cyberattacks target small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Based on a 2016 State of SMB Cybersecurity Report, CNBC reported that in the prior 12 months half of all SMBs in the U.S. had been hacked. … Continue Reading
Although certain industries are known targets for cyber attacks – healthcare, financial, government – cyber attacks pose a threat to all sectors. Organizations in the entertainment industry have increasingly become targets of cybercrime. Over the past several years, a number of large entertainment companies have fallen victim to cybercriminals, resulting in the threatened and actual … Continue Reading
The effects of hurricanes like Harvey and the approaching Irma should be a reminder to all businesses of the importance of disaster recovery planning. When a storm approaches, a business’s first concern is how to protect its employees and physical property. However, we shouldn’t forget that a natural disaster can also destroy a business’s information and technology … Continue Reading
Delaware joins the growing number of states that recently amended their data breach notification law. On August 17th, Delaware amended its data breach notification law with House Bill 180, the first significant change since 2005, effective 240 days after enactment (on or about April 14, 2018). Delaware maintains the state law trend of requiring businesses … Continue Reading
A New Jersey appeals court recently ruled that a two-year statute of limitations applies to a claim by an HIV-positive patient asserting one of his doctors improperly disclosed his medical status to a third party without consent. The three-judge Appellate Division panel rejected arguments by the doctor that the suit should be dismissed as time-barred … Continue Reading
The Maryland General Assembly has recently amended its Maryland Personal Information Protection Act, House Bill 974, effective January 1, 2018. Notable amendments expand the definition of personal information, modify the definition of breach of the security of the system, provide a 45-day timeframe for notification, allow alternative notice for breaches that enable an individual’s email … Continue Reading
Human Resources (“HR”) and information technology (“IT”) departments play unique and important roles within an organization. With instances of data breaches on the rise, however, companies should be mindful of the importance of regular communication and collaboration between employees in these departments with respect to issues of data security. Addressing such issues should not be … Continue Reading
Last August, we reported on a Ninth Circuit case in which a former employee was convicted of a crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) for accessing and downloading information from his former company’s database “without authorization.” The former employee has now asked that the U.S. Supreme review the Ninth Circuit’s decision. The … Continue Reading
As you likely know by now, international cybercriminals launched a worldwide ransomware attack last Friday with the European law enforcement agency Europol reporting over 100,000 affected organizations in 150 countries, including the U.S. Reports indicate that health care providers, universities, and other large companies were all targeted. The Department of Health and Human Services also … Continue Reading
Several years ago, we published a short primer for law firms intending to provide a brief discussion of key cybersecurity issues, including some helpful steps for safeguarding the client personal and confidential information they maintain. Since then, attacks against firms have increased, ethical rules are tightening, and clients are growing concerned. In at least one … Continue Reading
On May 11, 2017 – after weeks of anticipation – the White House released an Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. There could not be better timing with a global cyberattack unleashing ransomware against governments and companies in nearly 100 countries around the globe. This newly released Executive Order … Continue Reading
Disclosing protected health information (PHI) to a business associate without a compliant business associate agreement (BAA) is an improper disclosure under the HIPAA privacy and security regulations. According to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an error like that can cost a small healthcare provider $31,000. OCR recently announced a resolution agreement (pdf) with … Continue Reading
On April 6, 2017, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed HB 15, making New Mexico the 48th state to enact a data breach notification law. The law has an effective date of June 16, 2017 and follows the same general structure of many of the breach notification laws in other states. Importantly, the definition of personal … Continue Reading
The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), which represents over 42,000 in-house counsel across 85 countries, recently released its ACC Chief Legal Officers (CLO) 2017 Survey which found that two-thirds of in-house legal leaders ranked data protection and information privacy as ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important. In response to this growing concern, the ACC recently released “first-of-its-kind” … Continue Reading
