2016 was an eventful year in the Asia-Pacific region, as data protection and cyber security issues increasingly feature in the news headlines in the Asia-Pacific region as they do elsewhere, our annual publication, the 2017 Asia-Pacific Data Protection and Cyber Security Guide provides you with an update on key regulatory developments and emerging trends in data protection and cyber security. Key developments include: China’s passage of its Cyber Security Law, which will take effect from…

On 11 November, 2016, Hong Kong’s Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (“ASTRI“) published its “Whitepaper On Distributed Ledger Technology” (the “DLT Whitepaper“), a substantial research exercise commissioned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (the “HKMA“). The DLT Whitepaper is a useful and well-informed introduction to blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (“DLT“), as it is referred to throughout the paper, with a focus on how DLT may be used to enhance Hong Kong’s banking system. …

The law on the notification of data breaches in Australia looks set to change. The Privacy Act 1988 does not currently require companies that suffer a data breach to notify the Australian Information Commissioner (“Commissioner“) or affected individuals. While organisations are encouraged to do so by the Commissioner’s Data Breach Notification Guide (2014), and in practice many organisations choose to do so as a matter of good practice and business transparency, notification remains voluntary.…