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States continue to pass legislation addressing the protection and breach of private information and, on July 25, 2019, New York joined the growing trend when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (or “SHIELD Act”) into law.  The SHIELD Act significantly amends New York’s data protection and data breach notification laws – expanding their reach beyond businesses operating in New York and imposing new requirements on persons and businesses in possession of New York residents’ private information.

Effective March 2020, the proactive portion of the SHIELD Act will:

  • Apply to any business that has personal information (“PI”) regarding any New York resident
  • Require those businesses to adopt proactive measures to safeguard that PI
  • Require businesses to vet vendors entrusted with or with access to that PI

The amendments to the current New York breach notification law, effective on October 23, 2019, “redefine a “breach” to include the “mere” unauthorized access to PI (expand the law beyond the actual acquisition of such PI without authorization).

While the amendment to the breach notification requirements may not greatly impact businesses’ current practices, the proactive requirements will be felt by any business that is not already taking “reasonable” measures to safeguard PI in their control.  And if you are a vendor to any of these businesses, and you are not prepared to adopt the requisite proactive measures to protect PI entrusted to you, then you may lose that business.…
Continue Reading The Long Reach of New York’s SHIELD Act

In the continuing void at the federal level, more and more states are being proactive in adopting legislation that seeks to protect US residents’ personal data, and to impose stricter guidelines on companies that experience a data breach.

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Cybersecurity and data privacy remain at the top of the corporate agenda, and it is critical that executives stay ahead of the curve with the latest best practices in order to effectively respond when – not if – an data incident occurs.

To that end, I am pleased to offer a Lorman Education Service’s webinar,…

The time for businesses to wait until they are breached to respond to data vulnerabilities is coming to an end.  While 50 states have breach notification statutes (reactive legislation), more than 25 states have now adopted some form of proactive legislation requiring companies to take “some” measures to protect the personally identifiable information they collect,…