Latest in Data Protection
U.S. policymakers must have an accurate understanding of how Chinese government access to data works in order to respond to the risks posed in the most responsible and effective manner.
On Nov. 12, Russian national Aleksei Yurievich Burkov made an initial court appearance in Alexandria, Virginia. The appearance followed his extradition from Israel that had faced strong opposition from Russian officials. The indictment from 2016 alleges that Burkov ran a website called Cardplanet that contributed to more than $20 million in credit card fraud.
On Oct. 16, two subcommittees of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing focusing on protecting consumers on the Internet and content moderation. The livestream and hearing memorandum are available below.
With data breach incidents on the rise, federal courts are grappling with the issue of standing in class action lawsuits arising from data breaches.
Last month, the First American Financial Corporation—which provides title insurance for millions of Americans—acknowledged a cybersecurity vulnerability that potentially exposed 885 million private financial records related to mortgage deals to unauthorized viewers. These records might have revealed bank account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and driver’s license images to such viewers.
As a proponent of baseline federal privacy legislation, I am encouraged that proposals that would have been poison pills not long ago, such as individual rights to see, correct and delete data as well as new authority for the Federal Trade Commission, are drawing wide support now. But some crucial and difficult issues remain wide open.
Flat light is the state of disorientation, feared among pilots, in which all visual references are lost. The effects of flat light “completely obscure features of the terrain, creating an inability to distinguish distances and closure rates. As a result of this reflected light, [flat light] can give pilots the illusion that they are ascending or descending when they may actually be flying level.”
This is the state of information security today.
“I Love Lucy” provides the central metaphor for a Brookings paper released today on what to do to protect privacy. It comes from the episode where Lucy goes to work wrapping candies on an assembly line. The line keeps speeding up with the candies coming closer together, and, as they fall farther behind, Lucy and her sidekick Ethel scramble harder to keep up. “I think we’re fighting a losing game,” Lucy says.
This post has been adapted from prepared remarks delivered at the Georgetown Law Cybersecurity Law Institute luncheon on May 24, 2018.
Not so long ago, it was hard to find anyone who thought regulating Silicon Valley was even possible, let alone a good idea. Deference to the technology industry was such that companies were sometimes even applauded for baldly violating existing regulations. Think of the early days of Uber, whose “innovative” business model relied on running over transportation regulations and dealing with fines and lawsuits later.