On June 20, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 2610 into law, joining a growing number of states that aim to incentivize sound cybersecurity practices through legislative safe harbors. Modeled on laws in states like Ohio and Utah, the new Texas statute provides that certain businesses that “demonstrate[] that at the time of the

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

In February, a coalition of healthcare organizations sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (the Letter), urging the immediate rescission of a proposed update to the Security Rule under HIPAA. The update is aimed at strengthening safeguards for securing electronic protected health information.

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

A massive data breach hit one of the country’s largest education software providers. According to EducationWeek, PowerSchool provides school software products to more than 16,000 customers, largely K-12 schools, that serve 50 million students in the United States. According to reports, PowerSchool informed customers that, on December 28, 2024, PowerSchool became aware of

Governor Kathy Hochul signed several bills last month designed to strengthen protections for the personal data of consumers. One of those bills (S2659B) makes important changes to the notification timing requirements under the Empire State’s breach notification law, Section 899-aa of the New York General Business Law. The bill was effective immediately

No organization can eliminate data breach risks altogether, regardless of industry, size, or even if the organization has taken significant steps to safeguard their systems and train employees to avoid phishing attacks. Perhaps the most significant reason these risks remain: third-party service providers or vendors.

For most businesses, particularly small to medium-sized businesses, service providers

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.

With organizations holding more and more data digitally, there is an increased need to ensure data remains accessible across the organization at any given time. To that end, many organizations use tools that synchronize the organization’s data across various databases, applications, cloud services, and mobile devices, which involves updating data in real-time or at scheduled

Virtually all organizations have an obligation to safeguard their personal data against unauthorized access or use, and, in some instances, to notify affected individuals in the event such access or use occurs.  Those obligations are, in some instances, relatively nebulous, and organizations—for better or worse—have flexibility to determine what pre-incident safeguards and post-incident responsive actions