UPDATE: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reached a settlement with two telecom companies in connection with allegations the telecom companies violated the law regarding the privacy of phone customers’ personal information.
As we previously reported and discussed, in October 2014 the FCC initiated its first data security case against TerraCom, Inc. and
In the wake of recent, large-scale data breaches, one being the breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) affecting millions of federal employees, a number of bills have been battling their way through Congress to address breach notification and data security requirements at the federal level. There has been an ongoing pattern for years
Alabama recently introduced a bill (S.B. 106) which would require notification in the event of a breach affecting the personal information of an Alabama resident. While 47 states currently have laws requiring breach notification — most recently joined by Kentucky — New Mexico, South Dakota, and Alabama are the only states that do
On March 25, 2015, the United States House of Representative, Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade approved draft legislation which would replace state data breach notification laws with a national standard. This draft legislation comes on the heels of the President’s call for a national data breach notification law. The proposed
With breaches caused by payment card thieves and hackers dominating the news, it is easy for mid-sized and small companies to think that data breaches are unfortunate events that affect only large companies. Not only is this sentiment misguided, but in relative terms the information contained in exposed emails can cause far more damage to
Late last year we reported Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was seeking legislation which would better protect the online personal and financial information of Indiana residents. That legislation, S.B. 413, was unanimously passed by the Indiana Senate on February 24, 2015. Indiana’s bill follows similar efforts in New Jersey, New York and Oregon.
The first massive data breach of 2015 hit one of the country’s largest insurance issuers, Anthem, Inc., including Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and other related entities (Anthem). The incident reportedly affected over 80 million persons who are or were covered under a policy or program insured or serviced by Anthem. The personal note
In honor of National Data Privacy Day, we provide the following “Top 15 for 2015.” While the list is by no means exhaustive, it does provide some hot topics for businesses to consider in 2015.
News reports of security risks, hackings and breaches caused by individuals, terror groups or even countries around the world certainly are important and can be unsettling. But, for many organizations, including healthcare providers and business associates, a significant and perhaps more immediate area of data risk rests with an organization’s workforce members. An organization’s information
On December 19, 2014, the FCC published Chairman Thomas Wheeler‘s response to Senator Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) letter regarding the FCC’s recent proposed $10 million fine against two telecom companies.
In the response, Chairman Wheeler reiterated the need for FCC action in this area and explained that consumers regularly entrust their most personal, confidential,