Information Risk

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A UK law firm may find itself subject to significant penalties following reports of a data breach affecting thousands of people.  The recent 2010 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco devoted two sessions to the topic, specifically dealing with “cloud computing,” and the risks and ethical issues it raises for law firms. As data privacy and security risks…

The most frequent question we hear from clients who want to develop or tighten their data privacy and security policies and procedures: Where do we start?

In most cases, the first step for the group charged with this task is to understand the organization’s "information risk." This means, in short, examining what information the company has…

On August 18, 2010, the Connecticut Insurance Commissioner issued Bulletin IC-25 which mandates that entities within its jurisdiction notify the Department of Insurance of any "information security incident." This post provides a brief summary of this new requirement.

Who must provide the notice?

The Bulletin applies to all licensees and registrants of the Department. This generally means all entities…

Update – On September 29, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the third time vetoed S.B. 1166.

California led the way in 2002 when it enacted the nation’s first data breach notification law. Last week, the State’s lawmakers sent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger S.B. 1166 (pdf), which would mandate that data breach notification communications include more detailed…

On August 5, 2010, U.S. Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR) and John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV)  introduced legislation to require businesses and nonprofit organizations that store consumers’ personal information to put in place strong security features to safeguard sensitive data, alert consumers when this data has been breached, and provide affected individuals with the tools…

Rite Aid Corporation and its affiliates have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today. At the same time, Rite Aid signed a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced final rules for eligible health care professionals and hospitals to qualify for a portion of the $27 billion or so in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for implementation and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHR). Many are concerned these incentives will…

Further to our discussions of the proposed regulations to implement statutory amendments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”), we summarize here a proposed changed to the definition of “business associate.” A significant part of the “HIPAA community” (covered entities, business associates and their agents and subcontractors) already…

We recently reported here that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing proposed regulations to implement statutory amendments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”). These proposed regulations contain a number of important points to think about for HIPAA covered entities (and business associates…

Effective May 1, 2010, Alberta amended its Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) to require breach reporting and notification requirements. U.S. businesses with a presence in Alberta should take note of the new law as it is a bit different than most of the state data breach notification laws in the United States. 

PIPA governs the collection, use…