Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • December 20, 2024

    Israel's NSO Liable For Hacking WhatsApp, Judge Finds

    Israeli spyware maker NSO Group is liable for hacking into 1,400 WhatsApp users' devices, a California federal judge ruled Friday when granting WhatsApp's bid for a partial summary judgment win, leaving damages as the only issue to be probed during trial.

  • December 20, 2024

    Another Texas Judge Exits X's Advertising Boycott Suit

    The second Texas judge to oversee litigation filed by Elon Musk's X Corp. accusing the World Federation of Advertisers and others of conspiring to withhold advertising revenue from the company has recused himself from the case.

  • December 20, 2024

    Cable Org. Warns Members About FCC Robocall Enforcement

    Voice service providers need to make sure their Robocall Mitigation Database filings meet existing requirements, because if they aren't, the Federal Communications Commission is ready to start delisting companies and blocking them from providing voice service.

  • December 20, 2024

    9th Circ. Orders Closer Security Review In Muslim Spying Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday partially revived a long-running putative class action over the FBI's alleged surveillance of Muslims in Southern California, saying more work needs to be done before determining whether the case is so tied to state secrets that it puts national security at risk.

  • December 20, 2024

    TikTok Divestment Deadline Must Be Extended, Senators Say

    TikTok is set to be removed from app stores in the United States in less than a month, but two senators have urged President Joe Biden to kick the can down the road with an extension that would prevent "serious hardship" to both creators and users.

  • December 20, 2024

    NC Lawmaker Chosen To Lead House Communications Panel

    Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., has been selected as the next chair of the House Energy and Commerce panel with telecom jurisdiction.

  • December 20, 2024

    The Telecom Developments That Defined 2024

    The end of 2024 portends a sea change in telecom policy, as voters usher in a second Donald Trump term and with it a newly named GOP chief of the Federal Communications Commission who has pushed for a 180-degree turn at the agency.

  • December 20, 2024

    Utah Judge Pauses Challenge To Corporate Transparency Act

    A Utah federal judge has stayed a case seeking to block the Corporate Transparency Act to see how the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump handles the law after a kindred case in Texas won a preliminary injunction on it.

  • December 20, 2024

    Gunster $8.5M Data Breach Deal Needs More Info, Judge Says

    A Florida federal judge this week denied preliminary approval of an $8.5 million settlement in a data breach class action against Gunster and demanded more information on payouts, the plaintiffs' standing in the case and a historical breakdown of settlement rates.

  • December 20, 2024

    Feds Say Man Admitted To Role In Ransomware Group

    Federal prosecutors have accused a dual Russian and Israeli national of being part of the LockBit ransomware group that extracted more than $500 million in ransom payments from victims worldwide, saying the man admitted as much during a prior arrest, according to a superseding criminal complaint in New Jersey unsealed Friday.

  • December 20, 2024

    Top Privacy & Cybersecurity Developments Of 2024

    The state data privacy law patchwork continued to add new and varied pieces in 2024, while major hacks shook up the healthcare industry and other critical sectors, and the first U.S. laws setting guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence technologies emerged.

  • December 20, 2024

    Fuji Soft Founder, Bain Band Together On 'Not' Hostile Bid

    Bain Capital and Fuji Soft's founder said Friday they are joining forces on a plan to snap up a 50.1% stake in the Japanese IT company and take it private, as a bidding war with Bain rival KKR kicks into high gear. 

  • December 20, 2024

    CFPB Sues BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Over Zelle Fraud

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on Friday, alleging their customers have lost more than $870 million through a "massive scale" of fraud on the payment network Zelle while the banks turned a blind eye.

  • December 19, 2024

    Google Health Tracking Plaintiffs Fight To Keep Suit Alive

    A California federal judge who was asked by Google to toss a proposed class action alleging that the tech giant illicitly scoops up users' personal data from healthcare providers' websites indicated during a Thursday hearing that he might grant the request while adding that he still has "a lot more thinking to do."

  • December 19, 2024

    X Corp. Fails To Toss Data Breach Suit

    A California federal judge has refused to toss a twice-amended putative class action accusing X Corp. of failing to protect over 200 million users' personal information but tossed a breach of contract claim, saying users couldn't lean on the social media company's blog posts to allege X broke express security promises.

  • December 19, 2024

    Walgreens Must Face Uninjured Plaintiff's Receipt Class In Ill.

    An Arizona consumer who wasn't harmed by her Walgreens receipt's alleged overdisclosure of debit card information has standing to sue the company in Illinois, even if her suit is brought under federal law, a split state appellate panel said Thursday.

  • December 19, 2024

    5th Circ. Finds No 230 Immunity In Salesforce Trafficking Suit

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday shut down Salesforce Inc.'s arguments that it was immune under the Communications Decency Act to claims that it benefited from sex trafficking that took place on Backpage.com, saying the plaintiffs' claims do not treat Salesforce as a publisher or speaker of third-party content.

  • December 19, 2024

    FCC Told No Way To Network-Level Scan Of Calls For AI

    Consumer advocacy groups have come together to tell the Federal Communications Commission that they hate spam calls as much as anyone else, but they can't support a plan that would allow calls to be scanned for artificial intelligence at the network level.

  • December 19, 2024

    McKesson Urges Justices To Keep Hobbs Act's 'Exclusivity'

    McKesson Corp. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve circuit courts' "exclusive" jurisdiction for Federal Communications Commission orders, warning that regulatory consistency nationwide could be undermined if lower courts are allowed to step in.

  • December 19, 2024

    Top Gov't Contracts Policies Of 2024

    Lawmakers and federal agencies have introduced several consequential policy moves affecting government contractors this year, including a long-pending cybersecurity rule for defense contractors and a clarification to an unintendedly harsh interpretation of a federal registration requirement.

  • December 19, 2024

    CMA Issues Guidance For New Digital Competition Rules

    Britain's Competition and Markets Authority released guidance Thursday laying out how the agency intends to use its new powers to impose rules and obligations on large technology companies, ahead of the regime's launch next year.

  • December 19, 2024

    Tornado Cash Founder Says 5th Circ. Order Merits Dismissal

    The founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash renewed his bid to dismiss his money laundering and sanctions violation charges, saying a recent Fifth Circuit decision that found the company's smart contracts were not sanctionable property is fatal to the case.

  • December 19, 2024

    Atty Loses Bid To Exit Suits Over Unpaid Abuse Case Awards

    A personal injury attorney cannot have an early exit from negligence suits filed by three former clients over settlement payments, a Connecticut state judge ruled Wednesday, finding that a decision in a related case initiated by one of the plaintiffs did not resolve the complaints against the attorney.

  • December 18, 2024

    Funding Bill Takes In Broadband, Ticketing, Privacy

    A congressional spending package that would fund the federal government through March is set to include a slew of bipartisan proposals aimed at digital security, online pricing transparency and rural broadband access.

  • December 18, 2024

    11th Circ. Doubtful Of FCC's Marketing Consent Clampdown

    Eleventh Circuit judges appeared skeptical Wednesday of the Federal Communications Commission's legal justification for a marketing rule that requires selecting businesses on an individual basis through comparison shopping sites before the businesses can reach out to consumers.

Expert Analysis

  • How White Collar Enforcement May Shift In Trump's 2nd Term

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    After President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, the administration’s emphasis on immigration laws, drug offenses and violent crime will likely reduce the focus on white collar crime overall, but certain areas within the white collar world may see increased activity, say attorneys at Keker Van Nest.

  • Risk Management Takeaways From NIST's AI Symposium

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    Based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's September artificial intelligence innovation symposium, companies should anticipate that laws and regulations safeguarding AI could take new forms and approaches that break the current mold, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • New Trump Admin May Bring Financial Oversight Turbulence

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    As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term, his top financial market regulatory and securities law enforcement appointees, campaign promises, and regulatory preferences foretell a period of muddy regulatory waters, say attorneys at Kroll.

  • The Justices' Securities Rulings, Dismissals That Defined '24

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 securities rulings led to increased success for defendants' price impact arguments, but the justices' decisions not to weigh in on important issues relating to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's pleading requirements may be just as significant, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • 10 Noteworthy CFPB Developments From 2024

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    In a banner year for consumer finance regulation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made significant strides in its efforts to rein in Big Tech and nonbank financial firms, including via rules regarding open banking, credit card late fees, and buy now, pay later products, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Series

    Fixing Up Cars Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    From problem-solving to patience and adaptability to organization, the skills developed working under the hood of a car directly translate to being a more effective lawyer, says Christopher Mdeway at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

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    In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

  • Data Privacy Landscape After Mass. Justices' Wiretap Ruling

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    In Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state’s wiretap law doesn’t prohibit all tracking of website user activity, but major financial and reputational risks remain for businesses that aren't transparent about customer’s web data, says Seth Berman at Nutter.

  • Opinion

    Justices Rightly Corrected Course In Nvidia And Facebook

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    By dismissing both the Nvidia and Facebook class actions, over investors' ability to hold corporations accountable for fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court was right in refusing to favor corporations over transparency, and reaffirmed its commitment to corporate accountability, investor protection and the rule of law, says Laura Posner at Cohen Milstein.

  • Gov't Scrutiny Of Workplace Chat Apps Set To Keep Growing

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    The incoming Trump administration and Republican majorities in Congress are poised to open numerous investigations that include increasing demands for entities to produce communications from workplace chat apps, so companies must evaluate their usage and retention policies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Unwrapping Retailer AI Risks Amid Holiday Shopping Season

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    While generative artificial intelligence tools can catalyze game-changing results for retailers looking to stay ahead of the competition during the holiday season, and year-round, it can also bring certain legal risks, including product liability concerns, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

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    As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Changes To Expect From SEC Under Trump Nominee

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    President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Paul Atkins for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair will likely lead to significant shifts in the Division of Enforcement's priorities, likely focused on protecting retail investors and the stability of the capital markets, say attorneys at Morrison Foerster.

  • 'Minimal Participant' Bar Is Tough To Clear For Whistleblowers

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    Under the U.S. Department of Justice’s corporate whistleblower pilot program, would-be whistleblowers will find it tough to show that they only minimally participated in criminal misconduct while still providing material information, but sentencing precedent shows how they might prove their eligibility for an award, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Preparing For More Limber Federal Supply Chain Oversight

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    Ahead of the Federal Acquisition Security Council Improvement Act, which would speed up federal acquisition security risk investigations and federal procurement bans, companies should take steps to identify indirect involvement with foreign adversaries in their supply chains and prepare to respond quickly to a FASC recommendation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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