October 2017

Federal Judge Issues Opinion Concerning the Viability of Data Breach Claims

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York recently issued an opinion providing guidance concerning the viability of data breach claims, particularly in the context of a breach of employee information. Sackin v. Transperfect Global, Inc. involves a purported class action filed on behalf of Transperfect employees whose personally identifiable information (PII) was disclosed as a result of a cyber attack. In January 2017, a targeted phishing email was sent to a Transperfect employee designed to look like it had come from the company’s CEO, requesting payroll information regarding Transperfect employees. The Transperfect employee fell for the scheme and sent unencrypted PII to the attacker including names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, and bank account numbers for Transperfect employees. According to the complaint, the disclosure involved thousands of employees.

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Internet of Medical Things Resilience Partnership Act of 2017

A new bill called the “Internet of Medical Things Resilience Partnership Act of 2017,” H.R. 3985, was recently introduced in the House of Representatives. If passed as drafted, the bill will establish a working group of public and private entities led by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to recommend voluntary frameworks and guidelines to increase the security and resilience of Internet of Medical Things devices. Specifically, the working group will develop “recommendations for voluntary frameworks and guidelines to increase the security and resilience of networked medical devices sold in the U.S. that store, receive, access or transmit information to an external recipient or system for which unauthorized access, modification, misuse, or denial of use may result in patient harm.”

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