In today’s digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly advanced, bringing with it unprecedented opportunities — and challenges. One of the most pressing issues is the rise of AI-generated digital replicas, commonly...more
Help – someone is impersonating me! Social media is a funny thing – it allows people to present their lives in a very articulated way through pictures, videos, and other personal information. While content is usually posted...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently published Regulatory Notice 21-18 about roundtable discussions with 20 firms of various sizes and business models concerning customer account takeover incidents....more
On September 11, 2020, U.S. Representatives Bill Foster (D-IL), John Katko (R-NY), Jim Langevin (D-RI), and Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) introduced H.R. 8215, the Improving Digital Identity Act of 2020 (“the Act”) to address the...more
While preventing fraud has always been a key challenge for businesses in any industry, the task has been made even more difficult by the prevalence of online sales and the increasing sophistication of fraudsters. As states...more
Chemical processing, oil and gas transmission, and water industry employers should double-check the validity of workers’ specialty contractor licenses. Employers in industries which use workers holding specialty contractor...more
Synthetic identity fraud (SIF) is a recent phenomenon that scammers have used to circumvent the increasing awareness of traditional identity fraud. Instead of stealing a real person’s identity as with traditional identity...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) recently issued a “Trademark Alert” and corresponding news brief warning attorneys to monitor trademark filings to ensure that their names, signatures, and contact information...more
GandCrab Ransomware Backers Working on New Ransomware REvil - We previously reported that the criminals behind the GandCrab Ransomware were retiring, and that a patch was discovered and companies are urged to implement the...more
In the Federal Reserve’s July 11, 2019 White Paper, “Synthetic Identity Fraud in the U.S. Payment System, A Review of Causes and Contributing Factors,” the authors conclude that synthetic identity fraud is a serious and...more
Community Health System, one of the largest health systems in the United States, has agreed to pay $4,500,000 to settle claims made against it arising from a 2014 data breach. The data breach, believed to be caused by malware...more
In United States v. Khalil, No. 15-3819 (2d Cir. May 16, 2017) (Calabresi, Wesley, Lohier), the Second Circuit reversed the defendant’s conviction for transporting an alien within the United States for profit in violation of...more
Federal regulators unveiled a proposal yesterday that would push the country’s biggest banks and other “critical financial companies” to shore up cybersecurity protocols, to prevent hacks, and to have a recovery plan at the...more
Last week, the IRS announced that the electronic filing personal identification number tool (e-file PIN), used by taxpayers to verify their signature on their tax filings, “is no longer available.”...more
I have previously written about the IPPIN program that the IRS offers many taxpayers as a way to prevent tax-related identity fraud. Unfortunately, the IRS has halted the application process for now. On its website,...more
I have spent some time over the past few weeks concentrating on steps individuals can take to protect their privacy and identity. But how do you protect your child’s identity?...more
Managed security services are often a natural “add-on” when outsourcing IT services given that data protection is integral to application development, software as a service, and cloud storage, among other services. More...more
Not only did the IRS lose a flash drive with 12,000 school worker’s Social Security numbers on it in Texas, it admitted on August 17th that its initial estimate that 110,000 taxpayers’ personal information was used to file...more
On June 1, 2015, a U.S. District Court in Nevada dismissed a consolidated class action against Zappos stemming from a data breach in January 2012. The court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing given their failure to...more
When a loved one passes away, a crucial step in minimizing the risk of identity left is to notify the proper entities, such as government and credit reporting agencies, banks, and creditors of your loved one's death....more
Last week, in Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc., the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts responded to certified questions presented by the district court and interpreted a Massachusetts statute to reflect the state’s...more
On May 13, 2011, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law House Bill #87, a comprehensive immigration law mandating employer verification compliance and establishing criminal penalties for various acts. Some have touted...more