White House Holds Summit On Cybersecurity And Consumer Protection — On February 13, 2015, leaders from throughout the country representing sectors with a stake in cybersecurity and consumer protection issues convened at Stanford University to collaborate and explore partnerships to help develop ways to bolster cybersecurity. Participants included leadership from technology companies, consumer and privacy advocate groups, and law enforcement, among others. For more on the Summit, please click here and here.

President Obama Signs Executive Order Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing — On February 13, 2015, President Obama signed an executive order directing the government and companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats in the wake of several recent high profile cybersecurity attacks.

Senate Health Committee Leaders Announce Oversight Initiative On Security Of Health IT — U.S. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) recently announced a bipartisan initiative focused on examining the security of health information technology and the health industry’s preparedness for cyber threats. The goal of the initiative is to examine whether Congress can help ensure the safety of health information technology.

GAO Expands Cyber Focus In 2015 “High Risk” Report — Citing the dramatic increase of reported security incidents involving personally identifiable information (“PII”) at federal agencies, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) has expanded the risk area of protecting the privacy of PII, as explained in its 2015 High Risk Series Report. According to the GAO, advances in technology, such as new search technology and data analytics software that facilitate data tracking, combined with the increasing sophistication of hackers and the extent to which federal agencies and private companies collect sensitive information about individuals, have increased the risk of PII being exposed and compromised.

The Times Publishes Article By K&S Partner Pulina Whitaker Discussing Difficult Data-Protection Questions Faced By Smart TV Manufacturers — In an article recently published by The Times, King & Spalding partner Pulina Whitaker comments on data protection questions faced by “smart” TV manufacturers. New smart TVs have the ability to record private conversations when the voice recognition feature is activated. The key issue for smart TV manufacturers is whether the consent provisions adequately cover the manner in which personal information is collected, used and transferred to third parties, particularly overseas-based third parties. In some continental countries, such as France, consent must be explicit, and conditional consent, such as the use of the voice recognition features, may be viewed in a dim light by the data-protection authorities as being disproportionate to the extent of the personal data collected by the manufacturer, which is irrelevant to the voice recognition feature itself. A direct link to the article is available by clicking here. (Please note that The Times is a paid subscription publication.)

http://www.kslaw.com/News-and-Insights/PublicationDetail?us_nsc_id=8555

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