Cybersecurity and data privacy presented some of the most complex legal questions and business risks that multinational companies faced in 2018. Businesses should expect continued growth in cyber and data privacy challenges in 2019.
Cyber attacks became even more sophisticated and severe in 2018, with incidents ranging from exfiltration and extortion schemes, to attacks on critical infrastructure, threats to connected products, and vast data breaches. Even technically simple (but often highly costly) business email compromise attacks spiked in 2018, underscoring the continuing importance of implementing defensive best practices. The data privacy landscape also continued to grow more complex, as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) went into force in the European Union (“EU”)—and affected business practices around the globe. Other jurisdictions are already following suit, passing similar laws that will require significant compliance efforts.
2019 is poised to continue this trend of increasing complexity—and consequences—for cybersecurity and data privacy challenges.