Less than a month ago, a critical vulnerability was identified in the ubiquitous, open source Log4j tool prompting swift guidance from Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other security practitioners. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned companies that it “intends to use its full legal authority” against any company that fails to […]
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FBI Releases IC3 2020 Internet Crime Report Showing Record Increase in Cybercrime
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (“IC3”) recently released its annual report, the 2020 Internet Crime Report (“Report”), which gathers statistics from nearly 800,000 complaints of suspected cybercrimes that the department received in 2020. This is a record number of complaints—a 69% increase from 2019—with reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. According to the FBI, the […]
2021 Developments in State Cybersecurity Safe Harbor Laws
Only four months in and 2021 has already been a big year for state cybersecurity safe harbor legislation. Two states, Utah and Connecticut, have recently enacted or introduced a breach litigation safe harbor to incentivize businesses to protect personal information by adopting industry-recognized cybersecurity frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) […]
State Financial Regulators Issue Ransomware Mitigation Tool
On October 13, 2020, state financial regulators in partnership with the Bankers Electronic Crimes Taskforce and the U.S. Secret Service, released the Ransomware Self-Assessment Tool (R-SAT) to help financial institutions mitigate the risks of ransomware. The R-SAT is a detailed questionnaire designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an institution’s general security controls as well as […]
FinCEN Alerts Financial Institutions on Role in Facilitating Ransomware Attacks
With an increase in the frequency, sophistication, and cost of ransomware attacks, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory on October 1, 2020 alerting financial institutions to ransomware trends and typologies, and related financial red flags, that may result in a regulatory obligation to report and share information related to ransomware attacks. Based […]