Ransomware payments continue to be a focus of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). As previously reported by Foley Hoag, on October 1, 2020, OFAC released an advisory regarding potential sanctions risks related to facilitating ransomware payments. Almost a year later, on September 21, 2021, OFAC updated its advisory to provide additional guidance regarding what OFAC considers to be mitigating factors if facilitating a ransomware payment results in an apparent violation of U.S.… More

Ransomware payments continue to be a focus of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). As previously reported by Foley Hoag, on October 1, 2020, OFAC released an advisory regarding potential sanctions risks related to facilitating ransomware payments. Almost a year later, on September 21, 2021, OFAC updated its advisory to provide additional guidance regarding what OFAC considers to be mitigating factors if facilitating a ransomware payment results in an apparent violation of U.S.… More

A data security incident will always require a technical response, and usually that technical response will come from outside experts.  Those experts are hired to investigate and remediate an incident.  Since data incidents can lead to government investigations and litigation, the question is whether digital forensics reports from those vendors — and the communications around those reports — will be subject to discovery when litigation occurs.  A recent decision in this important and evolving area of case law makes clear that protecting those reports and communications is very difficult,… More

On July 7, 2021, Governor Jared Polis signed into law the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), making Colorado the most recent state to enact comprehensive privacy legislation.  While the CPA does not take effect until July 1, 2023, it contains robust provisions that businesses will need some time to prepare for.

The CPA draws many principles from and has a similar framework to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA),… More

On June 10, 2021, China adopted a new Data Security Law that will impact every business operating in or doing business with China. The law, which will take effect in less than a month (September 1, 2021), is sweeping in scope, imposes extensive data processing obligations, and establishes potentially severe penalties for violations. Although many of the details surrounding implementation remain unclear, given the law’s extensive requirements and severe penalties for noncompliance,… More

On July 28, 2021, President Biden issued a Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems.  The Memo recognizes that the protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure lies not only with government, i.e., at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels, but with critical infrastructure owners and operators.  In addition, the Memo states that cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure, and the systems that control and operate it,… More

Foley Hoag partner and Co-Chair of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security Practice, offers his insights, along with those of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI regarding spear-phishing campaigns using TrickBot malware throughout North America.

Read the full Revenue Cycle Advisor article here. More

In response to the spate of ransomware attacks, the United States has launched a website, www.cisa.gov/stopransomware.   According to the government press release, the website’s aim is:

to help public and private organizations defend against the rise in ransomware cases. StopRansomware.gov<http://stopransomware.gov/> is a whole-of-government approach that gives one central location for ransomware resources and alerts. We encourage organizations to use this new website to understand the threat of ransomware,… More

On March 2, 2021, Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) into law. This made Virginia the second state to enact a consumer privacy and data security law, and follows hot the heels of California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the newly-enacted California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act (CPRA). Virginia will not be the last to regulate the relationship between consumers and businesses holding their data;… More

If you aren’t following the ransomware attack on Kaseya’s VSA product and approximately 800-1500 of its users, you should be.  Like many cyberattacks, this one came on the verge of a holiday weekend.  As the company itself notes, “Kaseya’s VSA product has unfortunately been the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack.   Due to our teams’ fast response, we believe that this has been localized to a very small number of on-premises customers only. … More