The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/27/2019
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Data Theft ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Returns
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/15/2019
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Phishing Scams ,
Popular ,
Social Security Numbers ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Returns
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/14/2019
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Data Theft ,
Email ,
FBI ,
Hackers ,
IRS ,
Phishing Scams ,
Popular ,
Ransomware
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
8/9/2019
/ Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Identity Theft ,
Information Security ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Tax Planning
In March 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) convened an unprecedented coalition of state tax agencies and private-sector tax industry officials to fight back against emerging criminal syndicates exploiting sensitive...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has described itself as “Your cop on the privacy beat” and a top federal regulator of consumer-facing data security practices. An example of how the FTC asserts itself when it comes to...more
3/26/2019
/ Administrative Appeals ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appeals ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Security ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Internet of Things ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
Another day, and another form of hacking comes to light. On June 26, 2018, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issued a security tip...more
6/27/2018
/ Bitcoin Mining ,
Blacklist ,
Computer Servers ,
Computer Virus Protection ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Mining ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Digital Currency ,
Hackers ,
Internet of Things ,
Malware ,
Mobile Devices ,
Operating System Developers ,
Passwords ,
Popular ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Software Developers ,
US-CERT ,
User Names ,
Websites
While it may be better known as “Cyber Monday”, today also marks the start of the second annual National Tax Security Awareness Week (November 27 to December 1). The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax...more
11/27/2017
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Summit ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Phishing Scams ,
W-2
Since it was first announced by Presidential Proclamation in 2013, we mark each October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The Department of Homeland Security explains that, in 2017, designation is “designed to engage...more
On Friday, May 12, 2017, a malicious ransomware program known as WannaCry was discovered infecting computer systems all over the world. It set off alarms globally, and so far has infected over 200,000 computers across more...more
5/19/2017
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
FBI ,
Hackers ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Malware ,
Microsoft ,
National Security Agency (NSA) ,
Ransomware ,
US-CERT
This is the second in a two-part series addressing recent developments in state privacy and data security laws. This article addresses new laws about student privacy, enforcement/ punishment for data privacy and security...more
2/20/2017
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection Acts ,
Data Security ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HITECH Act ,
Identity Theft ,
NYDFS ,
Popular ,
State Data Breach Notification Statutes ,
Student Privacy ,
Unlawful Trade Practices Acts
For a number of years now, January 28 has been marked as “Data Privacy Day” (or, for our European friends, “Data Protection Day”), and it is often overlooked observed in the United States, Canada, India and many European...more
1/30/2017
/ Computer Virus Protection ,
Credit Cards ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Debit Cards ,
Encryption ,
EU ,
Online Banking ,
Passwords ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Settings ,
Software ,
US-CERT
On January 10, 2017, as the Obama administration draws to a close, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) released a long-awaited draft version 1.1 of its ground-breaking Framework for Improving Critical...more
Data breaches are fast becoming a fact of life. Experiencing a data breach is never a pleasant experience, regardless of how it happens – by accident, by criminal intent, or by system failure. Someone steals a company...more
In a keynote address delivered on September 27, 2016 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fifth annual Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, DC, Commerce Department Secretary Penny Pritzker conceded that “the federal government...more
Someone may be using your laptop or your desktop web camera to watch and listen to you without your knowledge. It happens, and yes, it’s downright creepy. And to think that someone may be spying on your kids that way is...more
This is the first in a series of articles about increasingly sophisticated cyber scams, and follows several alerts issued by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). These scams include: (1) Business Email...more
As part of the government’s recent clarion call to improve our individual and collective cybersecurity posture, several federal and state agencies have released a variety of guidelines, frameworks, best practices and tips. ...more
9/8/2015
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hackers ,
National Security Agency (NSA) ,
NIST ,
SBA ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Small Business ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Websites
In a highly-anticipated decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled in FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is authorized to pursue lawsuits against those who...more
8/27/2015
/ Administrative Authority ,
Consumer Information ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC v Wyndham ,
Privacy Policy ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Wyndham
A fictional cyber-terrorist weaponizing a medical device by hacking into it has become a familiar plot premise in recent Hollywood dramas. Unfortunately, the risk of harm from medical device hacking has now become an...more
In May 2015, the Ponemon Institute released its tenth annual Cost of Data Breach Study, sponsored by IBM. The study sets forth the average calculated cost for each lost or stolen record containing “sensitive and confidential...more
On April 28, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management (the “Division”) issued a Guidance Update to investment and fund advisers on the topic of improving cyber security. While it...more
For many companies, the prospect of a dreadful, costly and reputation-damaging cyber-attack and data breach is all the motivation they need to assess and improve their cyber security and data protection posture RIGHT NOW. ...more
This is an update to an article we posted on January 28, Can Hotels Legally Block Wi-Fi Hot Spots? The FCC Says No, and Fines a Hotel $600,000 For Doing It.
On August 25, 2014, the American Hotel & Lodging Association,...more
The federal government continues to steadily ratchet up its focus on cybersecurity. On February 13, 2015, President Obama signed an Executive Order to improve real-time sharing of cyber-threat information between government,...more
2/20/2015
/ Barack Obama ,
CTIIC ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Summit ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Information Sharing ,
ISAOs ,
Private Sector ,
Public Entities