K&S Client Alert: Third Try Is A Charm: Defend Trade Secrets Act Of 2015 Enacted Into Law—For the third consecutive year, Congress introduced legislation to create a federal civil cause of action for trade secret misappropriation. While the first two attempts failed, this time, the President signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“the DTSA”), and it became law on May 11, 2016. Read more here about this cause of action, created in response to the increasing importance of trade secrets in today’s economy and the increasing theft of trade secrets as global trade expands and critical data become digitized.
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens Supports Federal Breach Law—On May 3, speaking at a National Association of Attorneys General panel on protecting electronic data, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens noted his support for federal data breach legislation in lieu of the various state laws. Attorney General Olens stated that he is in the “minority of AGs” who think it is “absurd that there are 30 or 40 different state laws on cybersecurity and breach.” Attorney General Olens remarked that this is an area where Congress and President Obama should pass a national law, stating that “companies should not have to report to 30 different AGs with 30 different forms” and there should be a “standard form that both the [federal government] and the states use.”
FBI Warns Of Rise In Ransomware—On April 29, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a warning regarding the increase in ransomware cyberattacks. During 2015, law enforcement saw an increase in ransomware attacks, particularly against organizations, including hospitals and other companies in the health care industry. For more information, please see the King & Spalding Health Headlines newsletter, available here.
Don’t Forget: The Phase 2 HIPAA Audits Are Coming—As we first reported in our March 28, 2016 issue, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced in March the launch of its Phase 2 HIPAA compliance audits pursuant to which it will audit covered entities and business associates for compliance with selected requirements of the HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification rules. Although the Phase 1 audits did not include business associates, the Phase 2 audits will. HIPAA covered entities and business associates should have compliance documentation at the ready so that they can, if audited, comply with audit requests with short turnaround times. For more detail on the upcoming audits, please click here.
