Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

Episode 1: Identify & Mobilize

In the first segment of our 3-part series with Lawline, Lisa J. Sotto, head of our Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Hunton & Williams LLP, explains how to identify a cyber incident, mobilize your incident response team, coordinate with law enforcement and conduct an investigation.

On September 15, 2016, the New Jersey Senate unanimously approved a bill that seeks to limit retailers’ ability to collect and use personal data contained on consumers’ driver and non-driver identification cards. The bill, known as the Personal Information and Privacy Protection Act, must now be approved by the New Jersey Assembly.

On September 13, 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a proposed regulation that would require banks, insurance companies and other financial services institutions to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program designed to ensure the safety of New York’s financial services industry and to protect New York State from the threat of cyber attacks. 

Recently, the National Privacy Commission (the “Commission”) of the Philippines published the final text of its Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 10173, known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (the “IRR”). The IRR has a promulgation date of August 24, 2016, and went into effect 15 days after the publication in the official Gazette.

On August 30, 2016, the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) (the “Tribunal”) dismissed an appeal from UK telecoms company TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC (“TalkTalk”) regarding a monetary penalty notice issued to it on February 17, 2016, by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). The ICO had issued the monetary penalty notice to TalkTalk, for the amount of £1,000, for an alleged failure to report an October 2015 data breach to the ICO within the legally required time period.

On September 8, 2016, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued his Opinion on the compatibility of the draft agreement between Canada and the European Union on the transfer of passenger name record data (“PNR Agreement”) with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (“EU Charter”). This is the first time that the CJEU has been called upon to issue a ruling on the compatibility of a draft international agreement with the EU Charter.

In Part 3 of Lisa J. Sotto’s discussion at Bloomberg Law’s Second Annual Big Law Business Summit, she speaks on supply and demand in the privacy and cybersecurity fields. Lisa, partner and head of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group, points out that “demand very much outweighs supply.” To be a successful lawyer in this field, Lisa emphasizes the need for experience, recognizing that, “there is so much nuance, [and data privacy is] culturally based so you cannot just open a book and understand what to do.” In the next 10 years, Lisa hopes ...

On August 29, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is seeking public comment on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB”) Safeguards Rule. The GLB Safeguards Rule, which became effective in 2003, requires financial institutions to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program to safeguard customer information.

On August 25, 2016, WhatsApp announced in a blog post that the popular mobile messaging platform updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to permit certain information sharing with Facebook. After Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection wrote a letter to both Facebook and WhatsApp that discussed the companies’ obligations to honor privacy statements made to consumers in connection with the acquisition.

As we previously reported, Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group, spoke at Bloomberg Law’s Second Annual Big Law Business Summit on changes in the privacy and security legal landscape. In Part 2 of her discussion, Lisa speaks about the evolution of privacy laws over the years. The “hundreds of [privacy laws] at the federal and state level,” as well as data protection laws in countries all over the world, is a far cry from the landscape in 1999 when Lisa started the privacy practice at Hunton & Williams. To keep up ...