Author: Discerning Data Editorial Board

Enforcement Actions Launched by Securities and Exchange Commission – Heightened Scrutiny of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Companies

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A recent flurry of activity by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in court, and strong talk on the Hill, gives a clear indication that the U.S. regulatory agency is making a significant push to rein in the current wild-west atmosphere of investments in Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies.

In the wake of the DAO Report issued by the SEC in July 2017, the agency released several Investor Alerts to warn the public of the risks associated with investing in initial coin offerings (ICOs), including an alert to warn investors to be careful about advertisements by celebrities promoting ICOs and other Blockchain-related investments. Moreover, the SEC chairman and his counterpart at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have recently released statements and op-eds and appeared before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to elevate the awareness of lawmakers and the public of some of these risks.

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FTC Settlement with PayPal Resolving Allegations That Venmo Made Misrepresentations to Consumers and Violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

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The FTC has entered into a Consent Agreement with PayPal, Inc., settling allegations that PayPal, through its operation of Venmo, had violated Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (“GLBA”) Privacy and Safeguards Rules.   PayPal operates Venmo, a payment and social networking application and website that allows consumers to make peer-to-peer payments, which also shares information regarding such payments through a social network feed.  The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days.

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DOJ Announces Federal Indictment in Massive Cyberfraud Enterprise

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The Department of Justice announced the unsealing of a federal indictment charging 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization, an Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise that is alleged to have engaged in a large-scale cyberfraud.   The indictment alleges that the enterprise caused more than $530 million in actual losses to consumer, businesses, and financial institutions.

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European Commission Issues GDPR Guidance

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The European Commission (EC) recently issued online guidance on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a sweeping European Union (EU) data protection legislation that will take effect on May 25, 2018.  The guidance is intended to be used as a tool to help businesses as well as the EC, national data protection authorities, EU Member States, and other national administrations prepare for the GDPR.  To date, only 2 EU Member States – Germany and Austria – have adopted the relevant national legislation to be in compliance with GDPR.

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NIST Releases Draft Report on IoT Cybersecurity Standards; Comments Due April 18

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On February 14, 2018, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a draft of its NIST Interagency Report 8200 (NISTIR 8200), which is intended to inform policymakers and standards participants in developing and implementing cybersecurity standards in and for IoT devices and systems.  At a high level, the draft report is intended to:

  • provide a functional description for IoT (Section 4);
  • describe several IoT applications that are representative examples of IoT (Section 5);
  • summarize the cybersecurity core areas and provides examples of relevant standards (Section 6);
  • describe IoT cybersecurity objectives, risks, and threats (Section 7);
  • provide an analysis of the standards landscape for IoT cybersecurity (Sections 8 and 9); and
  • map IoT relevant cybersecurity standards to cybersecurity core areas (Appendix D).

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Information Injury Workshop Covers Non-Financial Harms Faced By Consumers

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The Federal Trade Commission held its Information Injury Workshop in December in Washington D.C. The goal of the workshop was to explore how to characterize and measure information injuries to consumers.

Information injury is the harm that a victim suffers as a result of privacy or data security breach. Financial, health and safety injury are the most common types of alleged injuries that the FTC has seen in privacy and data security in the past few years. Yet, injury that does not cause financial harm can be challenging to quantify.

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