On Sunday, December 13, 2020, SolarWinds announced that it had learned of a “highly sophisticated, manual supply chain attack” by a nation state affecting its Orion Platform, which is used by a wide variety of public and private sector organizations for IT infrastructure monitoring and management. In this attack, adversaries were able to compromise the […]
Department of Commerce (DOC)
A Brief Overview of the Privacy Shield
A one page summary is now available to help U.S. organizations initially evaluate whether the Privacy Shield represents a viable mechanism to legitimize their transfer of personal data from the European union. The summary lists the key features and requirements of the Privacy Shield, some of which were contained in the now-invalidated EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Framework, […]
FTC Proposes Settlement with Two Companies Over False Safe-Harbor Claims
On April 7, 2015, two U.S. companies agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) allegations that they falsely claimed to be in compliance with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework. In the concurrently filed complaints against TES Franchising, LLC (“TES”), a franchisee coaching business, and American International Mailing, a mail […]
CDD Urges FTC to Investigate 30 Companies for Alleged Safe Harbor Violations
The Center for Digital Democracy (“CDD”), a private consumer privacy advocate, recently filed a complaint and “request for investigation” before the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) accusing 30 U.S. companies of violating provisions of the Safe Harbor framework. The 118-page complaint, filed August 14th, urges the FTC to take legal action against the companies, including Adobe […]
NIST releases final Cybersecurity Framework
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) has released the final version of the much-anticipated Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (the “Framework”). The Framework was developed by NIST at the direction of President Obama’s February 12, 2013, Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” (the “Executive Order”). The Framework largely retains the structure […]