Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • November 27, 2024

    5th Circ. Reverses Treasury's Block Of Crypto Mixer

    The Fifth Circuit has rejected the government's blacklisting of Tornado Cash for "its role in laundering virtual currency for malicious cyber actors," saying the cryptocurrency service's immutable smart contracts, or lines of privacy-enabling software code, are not "property" and are therefore unownable and cannot be blocked under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

  • November 27, 2024

    Data Cos. Lose Challenge To NJ Judicial Privacy Law

    A federal judge has ruled that the New Jersey judicial privacy and security measure known as Daniel's Law is constitutional, handing a defeat to a large group of data brokers accused of illegally posting judges' names and addresses online.

  • November 27, 2024

    Better, Faster, Stranger: What Attys Think Of Our AI Future

    Law firms are increasingly embracing the use of artificial intelligence, wary of its limitations but enchanted by its potential to transform the practice of law through smaller headcounts and cheaper litigation.

  • November 26, 2024

    Sundance Can't Ditch Suit Over Purchase Data Disclosures

    A Utah federal judge has refused to toss a proposed class action accusing specialty retailer Sundance of unlawfully sharing its customers' private information with various third parties, finding that a ban on class actions contained in the state law being relied on by the plaintiffs didn't doom the dispute. 

  • November 26, 2024

    X Partially Revives Lawsuit Against Israeli Data Scraping Firm

    X Corp. partially revived its lawsuit Tuesday against Israeli data scraping firm Bright Data after a California federal judge allowed the social media company to amend some of its claims and add new ones, finding X now plausibly alleges the defendant's "sophisticated efforts" to access the platform caused harm.

  • November 26, 2024

    Truepill's $7.5M Patent Data Theft Settlement Gets Initial OK

    A California federal judge Tuesday preliminarily backed a $7.5 million deal resolving a proposed class action alleging that online pharmacy PostMeds Inc., which does business as Truepill, failed to protect the sensitive information of millions of patients from a data breach.

  • November 26, 2024

    Smart Devices Fail To Disclose Security Lifespan, FTC Says

    As holiday shopping gets underway, the Federal Trade Commission is raising alarm about smart device update disclosures, saying an overwhelming majority of devices – from hearing aids to home security cameras and fitness devices — come without clear information on how long the manufacturer will keep them protected from security risks.

  • November 26, 2024

    T-Mobile, Sprint Slam FCC Privacy Fine At DC Circ.

    T-Mobile and Sprint are asking the D.C. Circuit to knock down $92 million in fines the FCC slapped them with for selling users' sensitive location data, saying that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision backs their contention they deserved a jury trial.

  • November 26, 2024

    Victim Shares Blame For $1.4M Scam, Connecticut Atty Says

    A New Jersey real estate development company is at least partly to blame after it transferred more than $1.4 million to a fraudster without taking proper precautions, a Connecticut attorney said Tuesday in response to a federal lawsuit that accuses her of involvement in the scam.

  • November 26, 2024

    FTC Says AI Weapons-Screening Biz Hyped Faulty Scanners

    The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday accused Evolv Technologies of making false and unsupported claims that its AI-powered security screening products detect weapons while ignoring harmless personal items.

  • November 26, 2024

    Bojangles' Restaurants Sued Over Weekslong Cyberattack

    A former employee of Southern-style fast-food chain Bojangles' Restaurants Inc. said the company negligently failed to protect his and his proposed class members' personal information, allowing hackers to access it earlier this year in a cyberattack that lasted for weeks.

  • November 25, 2024

    Mich. Atty's Voting Machine Criminal Trial Delayed Again

    A Michigan state judge on Monday yet again delayed the criminal trial of an attorney accused of accessing 2020 voting machines after reiterating that he would not disqualify special prosecutors from arguing the case, giving more time for others similarly charged to chime in about newly discovered evidence.

  • November 25, 2024

    Fla. IT Worker Gets 4 Years In Chinese Spying Case

    An information technology worker who pled guilty to working as a "cooperative contact" for the Chinese government was sentenced in Florida federal court Monday to four years behind bars, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

  • November 25, 2024

    Geico, Travelers To Pay NY $11.3M To Settle Data Security Row

    New York's financial services regulator and attorney general revealed Monday that they've hit Geico and Travelers with $11.3 million in penalties for the auto insurers' alleged failure to adequately secure driver's license numbers, birth dates and other personal information that was compromised as part of a hacking campaign targeting online rate quote tools.

  • November 25, 2024

    'Shameful': Dems Rip Credit Bureaus Over Scrapped Hearing

    Democratic senators on Monday lit into the Big Three credit bureaus for allegedly backing out of preelection commitments to testify last week before the Senate Banking Committee, calling the move "shortsighted and shameful."

  • November 25, 2024

    Pitt Ordered To Disclose Docs Jolie Says Will Prove Abuse

    A California judge overseeing a dispute between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie over a multimillion-dollar French winery ruled Monday that Pitt must disclose documents and communications that Jolie says will prove he sought to cover up his domestic violence against her and their children.

  • November 25, 2024

    Construction Co. Seeks Coverage For $1.9M Email Spoof

    A construction company told an Alaska federal court that a Travelers unit acted in bad faith by refusing to provide directors and officers coverage for an email spoofing scheme that caused the company to wire roughly $1.9 million of a partner construction company's funds to an "imposter."

  • November 25, 2024

    Spectrum, Rip And Replace Are Top FCC Priorities, Carr Says

    Congress needs to focus next year on restoring the Federal Communications Commission's authority to auction spectrum bands and figure out how to pay for adequate telecom cybersecurity, says Brendan Carr, the agency's upcoming Republican chair.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Board Seeks Comment On AI Rules Amid Pushback

    The California Privacy Protection Agency on Friday opened the public comment period for its latest rulemaking package proposing expansive draft rules regulating technologies fueled by artificial intelligence — including in the employment, education, healthcare, consumer protection, banking and insurance contexts — which business groups have already criticized as being overly broad and burdensome.

  • November 25, 2024

    Medical Info. Co. Beats Junk Fax Suit Over Free E-Book Offer

    A medical information company has once again defeated a long-running Telephone Consumer Protection suit over unsolicited faxes it sent in 2013, with a West Virginia federal judge ruling the plaintiffs produced no evidence that the company got paid when recipients responded to their faxes.

  • November 25, 2024

    Texas Judge Tosses Remainder Of Border Phone Search Suit

    A federal judge in Texas has tossed a lawsuit from an attorney who claimed U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers illegally seized and searched his cellphone at the border.

  • November 25, 2024

    Condo Boards Likely Safe From Corporate Transparency Law

    New corporate reporting requirements under an anti-money laundering law likely do not apply to condominium associations, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled.

  • November 25, 2024

    CNN Calls NC Lt. Gov.'s Defamation Suit 'Political Theater'

    The defamation suit against CNN brought by Mark Robinson, North Carolina's lieutenant governor and an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, must be thrown out for being simply "political theater," the news outlet said.

  • November 25, 2024

    Justices Turn Away Suit Over Data Extraction Award

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a petition asking it to resolve whether a court or an arbitrator should decide the preclusive effect of a prior judgment, in a case stemming from a soured data extraction services contract involving a mortgage industry data analytics firm.

  • November 22, 2024

    Ill. Judge Bucks Colleague In Limiting BIPA Change's Reach

    An Illinois federal judge held Friday that a legislative amendment limiting damages under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act doesn't apply to lawsuits filed before the change took effect, refusing to side with a recent ruling from another judge in the same court that reached the opposite conclusion. 

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating HHS' New Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Rule

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule regarding protections for the privacy of reproductive health information will require regulated entities to grapple with difficult questions about whether to comply with state law requirements or federal privacy prohibitions, says Christine Chasse at Spencer Fane.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Open Questions In Unsettled Geofence Warrant Landscape

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    The Fourth and Fifth Circuits recently reached radically divergent conclusions about the constitutionality of geofence warrants, creating an uncertain landscape in which defendants should assert and preserve the full range of conventional Fourth Amendment challenges, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • A Look At 5 States' New Data Privacy Laws

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    With new data privacy laws in Utah, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Montana recently in effect or coming into force this year, state-level enforcement of data privacy creates significant challenges and risks for how businesses interact with employees and consumers, and for companies that provide and use technologies in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Antitrust In Retail: Why FTC Is Studying 'Surveillance Pricing'

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    The Federal Trade Commission's decision to study targeted "surveillance pricing" should provide greater clarity into the nature of the data aggregation industry, but also raises several issues, including whether these practices are in fact illegal under any established interpretations of U.S. antitrust law, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

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    In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

  • What 2 Key Rulings Mean For Solicitation Under TCPA

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    Two recent rulings from federal district courts in New York and California — each of which came to a different conclusion — bring to light courts' continued focus on and analysis of when an alleged communication constitutes a solicitation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say Felix Shipkevich and Jessica Livingston at Shipkevich.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Navigating The Complexities Of Cyber Incident Reporting

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    When it comes to cybersecurity incident response plans, the uptick in the number and targets of legal and regulatory actions emphasizes the necessity for businesses to document the facts underlying the assumptions, complexities and obstacles of their decisions during the incident response, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Managing Sanctions Defense Across Multiple Jurisdictions

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    Companies called before multiple regulators to account for the same conduct in this era of increased global sanctions and import-control enforcement should consider national differences in law and policy, and proactively coordinate their responses in certain key areas, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • 4 Ways To Prepare For DOD Cyber Certification Rule

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice's increased scrutiny of contractor compliance with cybersecurity requirements, it is critical that contractors take certain steps now in response to the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation rule, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

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