On June 18, 2024, the SEC announced a $2.125 million settlement with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (“RRD”) related to the company’s 2021 ransomware attack (the “Incident”). The settlement, and the SEC’s accompanying cease-and-desist order (the “Order”), portend the agency’s continued and increasing oversight over registrants’ cybersecurity policies and practices. Background RRD is a global […]
Enforcement
DOJ Announces $11.3 Million in Settlements for FCA Violations
On Monday, June 17, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement in which two U.S. based consulting companies agreed to pay a combined total of $11.3 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in government contracts. According to the DOJ, the […]
Data Breach Notification Requirements under the Safeguards Rule Now in Effect
For years, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) has required financial institutions to maintain reasonable safeguards for consumer data, but has only had limited breach-reporting requirements. To the extent financial institutions were subject to breach-reporting obligations, these were set by non-GLBA legislation, such as state law, or by relatively narrow incident-reporting rules under Interagency Guidelines overseen by […]
LockBit Takedown Indicates Shifting DOJ Cyber Strategy and Has Implications for Ransomware Victims
On May 7, 2024, the United States unsealed an indictment against Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, one of the leaders of the Russian-based ransomware group LockBit, for his alleged involvement in developing and distributing the LockBit ransomware. According to the indictment, Khoroshev performed both administrative and operational roles for the cybercrime group, including upgrading the LockBit infrastructure, […]
FTC Denies an Application to Add a New Verifiable Parental Consent Mechanism Under COPPA Rule Without Prejudice
On March 29, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) published a unanimous decision to deny an application by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, Yoti, and SuperAwesome (collectively, the “Applicants”) to add a new verifiable parental consent (“VPC”) mechanism under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA Rule”). The application, which our previous blog post […]