Last week, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued a joint statement warning of an “increasing frequency and severity of cyber attacks involving extortion.” The statement warned that criminals have been extorting financial institutions using a variety of tactics, including denial of service attacks, theft of sensitive information, and use of “ransomware,” which is […]
Data Protection
European Commission Releases Communication on Schrems and Safe Harbor 2.0
On November 6, 2015, the European Commission released a widely-anticipated Communication assessing the impact of the judgment of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) in the Schrems case (C-362/14), which invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework. Though the Communication is not legally binding, it provides useful guidance to companies on transfers of personal data to the […]
Commission Underlines Commitment to Safe Harbor Discussions
In a keynote speech today before the 37th International conference of Privacy and Data Protection Commissioners in Amsterdam, EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová reiterated the commitment of the European Commission to completing discussions with the United States on a replacement framework for the U.S.-EU Safe Habor. Commissioner Jourová noted that, in the wake of the European Court […]
Swire on Data Transfers After Schrems
Peter Swire, Alston & Bird Senior Counsel and Georgia Institute of Technology Scheller College of Business professor, has published an article on the path forward for E.U. / U.S. data transfers. Swire’s article offers a historical perspective on the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) recent decision in Schrems. Schrems invalidated the Safe Harbor framework relied […]
Article 29 Working Party Calls for Political Action
In a concise statement, the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), a consortium of European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), released a position paper today about the landmark ruling of the European Court of Justice in Maximilian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner (C-362-14). WP29 makes a political call on the EU Member States to finalize discussions with […]