Category: USA
27. October 2016
The Federal Trade Commision just released Guidelines on how to act in case of a data breach. These are called Data Breach Response: A Guide for Business and also include a video and a business blog.
These Guidelines state the most imprtant steps to be taken in order to protect customer information:
- securing physical areas
- removal of improperly posted information from the web
- take service providers into account
- providing breach notification
- information about whom to contact in case of a data breach eg. law enforcement, affected businesses, and individuals
Furthermore, a model data breach notification letter is also included so that companies get to know the best way to alert concerned parties about an attack.
25. October 2016
After a meeting of the Article 31 Committee, the European Commission disclosed two drafts concerning the implementation of amendments to the existing adequacy decisions and decisions on EU Model Clauses.
First of all, adequacy decisions determine whether a third country provides adequate safeguards in order to protect personal data. These decisions are made by the Commission after an assessment of the national laws and international commitments in terms of data protection of the respective country. In the following, countries which are established to be adequate are added to the Commission’s “white list”. Therefore, data transfers can be made from the EEA to that country without any further legal requirements.
The opinion concerning these amendments is divided. Some European Member States which participated at the Article 31 Committee meeting were for implemnting theses amendments. However, other European Member States requested more time in order to consider the proposed changes.
Due to this conflict another meeting has to be scheduled to which the Article 29 Working Party will be aksed to contribute by presenting its views on the respective changes.
18. October 2016
As the Washington Post reported, the Justice Department asked the appeals court for the Southern District of New York to look at the decision concerning Microsoft’s refusal to comply with a search warrant for an alleged drug trafficker’s emails stored on a server in Ireland.
The case which this ruling was based on dealt with Microsoft receiving a warrant in December 2013. However, although it originally has been a case of compliance with a federal law enforcement request, now turned out to be a discussion over government access to digital data held overseas. This is due to increasing challenges to governments if they try to intercept data across borders.
Therefore, Microsoft and a number of tech firms and privacy groups reason that in case the government’s view will be applied, the outcome will be that U.S.-american businesses might lose billions of dollars in revenue.
12. October 2016
Dell just published the results of a global survey about the GDPR perceptions and readiness. Among other findings, the main result is the lack of awareness of the requirements, the preparation and the impact:
- More than 60 % answered that they are aware that something is going on with the GDPR. However, they said that they do not know what exactly is happening.
- Just 4 % outside of Europe commented that they are very knowledgeable about the details of the GDPR. Nevertheless, only 6 % of those in Europe answered that they are very familiar with the requirements.
- On top of this, less than 1 of 3 companies feel that they are prepared for the GDPR.
- Furthermore, about 70 % said that their company is definitely not, or do not know if their company is, prepared for the GDPR today. However, only 3 % of them have a plan in order to get ready.
- Fewer than 50 % commented that they feel confident to be ready in time when the GDPR comes into effect in 2018. Nevertheless, just 9 % expect to be fully prepared.
11. October 2016
The New York Post published that Verizon, which is about to purchase Yahoo for $4.8 billion, is now asking Yahoo for a $1 billion discount.
This is due to the fact that Yahoo announced only two weeks ago that it had been hacked two years ago and that at this time usernames and passwords for 500 million accounts were stolen. Furthermore, it was revealed that Yahoo had been ordered by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to investigate emails for terrorist signatures under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but not under section 702.
According to the New York Post, a source said that AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong, “is getting cold feet” due to the “lack of disclosure” and therefore he is asking “Can we get out of this or can we reduce the price?”
10. October 2016
After Hamburg’s Data Protection Commissioner strongly recommended that Facebook should stop processing German data gained from WhatsApp, after the U.K. Information Commissioner, the ICO, also started to investigate the agreement betweent WhatsApp and Facebook and after Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, has started to look into this issue, now Spain’s data protection authority, the AEPD, raises concerns.
Therefore, Spain’s data protection authority advises users to read the terms and conditions especially before accepting them. Furthermore, it offers guidance on changing the respective settings.
7. October 2016
A new biometric corporate credit card programm, called Identity Check Mobile, has been released by BMO Financial Group (BMO) and MasterCard in Canada and in the U.S. at the beginning of the year.
This programm enables cardholders to verify their transactions by using facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics in case they purchase online.
Introducing this verification process will increase security when purchasing without a face-to-face interaction so that the possibility of a card being used by anyone who is not the cardholder will be reduced.
Steve Pedersen, Vice President, Head, North American Corporate Card Products, BMO Financial Group commented on the programm by saying “The use of biometric technology has become more common for consumers looking for convenient and secure ways to make purchases using their smartphones, so this was the natural next step for us as innovators in the payment security space” he continued “Mitigating the risk of fraud is always our top priority, and the inclusion of this technology is going to make payment authentication easier, and strengthen the security of the entire payments ecosystem.”
MasterCard just published that starting from the 4th Octobre 2016 this form of payment is also available in Germany.
29. September 2016
Forbes just released an article saying that Apple invited some of the best hackers to its headquarter in Cupertino.
Among them:
- the 19-year-old teenage prodigy who was the first to jailbreak an iPhone 7, and therefore now being a world-renowned iOS hacker as well as an
- ex-NSA employee who has repeatedly found security lacks concerning Mac OS X Luca Todesco.
The meeting should have been secret and kept confidential, but unfortunately some details leaked. So for example that Apple plans to brief them on the launch of its bug bounty program. The hackers will be rewarded with up to $200,000 in case they can provide Apple with information on vulnerabilities about its laptops and phones. Furthermore, the mentioned program is expected to be put into effect before the end of the month due to the fact that this has been promised at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last months. Nevertheless, Apple pursues an invite-only list-strategy in order to get quality over quantity.
22. September 2016
Recode just published an interview with Margrethe Vestager, Europeans Commissioner for Competition, talking about her impression that Europeans care more about their data than Americans.
First, she elaborates that Europe has historically been more critical towards new technology practices such as data collection. In this context, Vestager said “I am an economist, so I know that there is no such thing as a free lunch” she went on “You pay with one currency or another — either cents, or you pay with your data, or you pay with the advertisements that you accept. And I think people are becoming more and more aware of the fact that their personal data do have a value.”
Vestager underlined her point of view that Europeans care more about their data than Americans by saying “What we see in Europe is that a huge proportion of citizens find that they are not in control” she added “They distrust the companies to protect their data, and I think that is very bad, because then there is a risk of withdrawing from all the benefits of our digital economy. And in order to build up trust I think it is very important that we enforce privacy rules, that we get privacy by design in new services, so that privacy is not just an add-on, that it is very basic.”
Therefore, according to Vestager the Europeans have a greater need to protect their data than Americans.
This week, heise-online reported that after last years attack on the German Parliament, this year on the 15th and 24th August the offices of several members of Parliament as well as their employees were targeted again in a new attack.
Emails containing malware were sent to the respective politicians. The Emails were supposedly sent by Heinrich Krammer working for the NATO-Headquarter.
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) stated that the attacks probably originated from Russia. The BSI believes that the attacks might be linked to the hacking of private emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign team in the US earlier this year.
The BSI assumes that the hackers might have been looking for potentially damaging information which could be released a few weeks before elections next year in an attempt to influence the result.
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