California’s 2019 legislative session has drawn to a close with passage of five amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) during the final days of the session.  Assuming that the bills are timely signed by the Governor before the October 13 deadline, businesses will finally have the complete version of the statute that will come into effect January 1, 2020 (with the exception of regulations expected to be issued by the California Attorney General…

In late July 2019, U.S. federal and state regulators announced three headline‑grabbing data privacy and cybersecurity enforcement actions against Equifax and Facebook.  Although coverage of these cases has focused largely on their striking financial penalties, as important are the terms the settlements imposed on the companies’ operations as well as their officers, directors, and compliance professionals—and what they signal about potential future enforcement activity to come.…

On July 25, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (the “SHIELD Act” or the “Act”), which expands data breach notification obligations under New York law and for the first time imposes affirmative cybersecurity obligations on covered entities. The Act makes five principal changes to existing New York law: Expanding the law’s jurisdiction to entities that maintain private information of New York residents, regardless…

In the past year, members of the U.S. Congress and Senate on both sides of the aisle have proposed data privacy bills that would impose nationwide standards on companies who collect and/or share consumers’ personal information. Currently, all 50 states have separate, but often overlapping, data privacy regimes—each subjecting companies to various combinations of recordkeeping standards, data sharing restrictions, and data breach reporting requirements—creating a patchwork of state laws that can generate substantial uncertainty for…

In 2018, data privacy and cyber breaches made headlines throughout the year. Major companies continued to suffer data breaches, highlighting the risks and potential costs of cyber incidents across industries.  At the same time, a growing and overlapping thicket of data security and privacy regulations—within the U.S., European Union, Latin America, and elsewhere—continued to increase compliance costs and regulatory risks.  This memo surveys some of the key cybersecurity and data privacy developments of 2018, including…

Nearly a decade ago, WikiLeaks ushered in the age of mass leaks.  Since then, corporations, governments, public figures and private entities have increasingly had to reckon with a new reality: that vigilantes, activists, extortionists and even state actors can silently steal and rapidly disseminate proprietary information, including customer data and other sensitive information.  Last month, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) indicted four individuals based on information first revealed in the “Panama Papers” leak.  This marks…