In late March 2025, the Florida Bar Board of Governors unanimously endorsed the recommendation of its Special Committee on Cybersecurity and Privacy Law that law firms should adopt written incident response plans (IRPs) to better prepare for and respond to data security incidents. The recommendation reflects a growing recognition across professional service industries—particularly law firms—of
A Brief Reminder About the Florida Information Protection Act
According to one survey, Florida is fourth on the list of states with the most reported data breaches. No doubt, data breaches continue to be a significant risk for all business, large and small, across the U.S., including the Sunshine State. Perhaps more troubling is that class action litigation is more likely to follow
Israel’s GDPR-like Legislation Set to Take Effect in 2025
In 2024, Israel became the latest jurisdiction to enact comprehensive privacy legislation, largely inspired by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). On August 5, 2024, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted to approve the enactment of Amendment No. 13 (“the Amendment”) to the Israel Privacy Protection Law (“IPPL”). The amendment which will take effect on
Key Takeaways for Healthcare Providers Following HHS OCR’s Most Recent Ransomware Investigation
Announcing its fourth ransomware cybersecurity investigation and settlement, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also observed there has been a 264% increase in large ransomware breaches since 2018.
Here, the OCR reached an agreement with a medium-size private healthcare provider following a ransomware attack relating to potential violations of the HIPAA Security Rule.
DOL Expands Fiduciary Obligations for Cybersecurity to Health and Welfare Plans
A little more than three years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) posted cybersecurity guidance on its website for ERISA plan fiduciaries. That guidance extended only to ERISA-covered retirement plans, despite health and welfare plans facing similar risks to participant data.
Last Friday, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued Compliance Assistance Release
Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) Bypassed to Permit Data Breach
As organizations continue to take steps to prevent cyberattacks, a near-universal recommendation is that they should implement multi-factor authentication (MFA), and for good reason. Organizations subject to the updated FTC Safeguards Rule, for example, are required to implement MFA. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) includes MFA as a best practice. And
Insights From The IBM 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report
The annual Cost of a Data Breach Report (Report) published by IBM is reliably full of helpful cybersecurity data. This year is no different. After reviewing the Report, we pulled out some interesting data points. Of course, the Report as a whole is well worth the read, but if you don’t have the time to
Cyber Safety Review Board Issues Compelling Report about Lapsus$, MFA Vulnerabilities, and Helpful Recommendations
The Cyber Safety Review Board (Board) issued a report entitled, Review of the Attacks Associates with Lapsus$ and Related Threat Groups (Report), released by the Department of Homeland Security on August 10, 2023. The Report begins with a message from the Board’s Chair and Vice Chair discussing WarGames, a movie with interesting parallels to
White House Announces Efforts to Strengthen K-12 Schools’ Cybersecurity
In a 2019 post about increasing cyber risks in K-12 schools, we cited a report, “The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2018 Year in Review,” that contained sobering information about cybersecurity in local school districts across the country. According to that report, in 2018, there were 122 publicly-disclosed cybersecurity incidents affecting school districts across
NYSDFS Fines Lender and Mortgage Servicer $4.25M for Cybersecurity Failures Including Vendor Management
Yesterday, New York’s Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced another enforcement action under the state’s Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies, 23 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 500 (“Reg 500”). According to the press release, OneMain Financial Group LLC (“OneMain”) will pay a $4.25 million penalty to New York State for alleged violations of Reg 500.
In the