The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to propose cybersecurity rules that, if adopted, would require investment advisers and funds to implement written policies and procedures to address cybersecurity risk, and would create new reporting, disclosure and record keeping obligations.
Category: Cybersecurity
FTC Updates to “Safeguards Rule” Has Impacts for Higher Education Institutions
On December 9, 2021, the FTC published a final rule amending the requirements for safeguarding customer information under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The Safeguards Rule has long established cybersecurity standards under which customer information must be maintained by financial institutions, which include all higher education institution that participate in the federal student financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended.
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U.S. Cybersecurity Officials Issue New Warning Regarding Threats to Critical Infrastructure
On January 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA) issued a joint advisory, warning of an increasing cybersecurity threat posed by Russian state-backed threat actors to U.S. critical infrastructure.
Log4j Vulnerability Prompts Insurance Commissioners to Issue Guidance
On December 11, 2021, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in partnership with the FBI and NSA, announced a critical remote code execution vulnerability had been identified in the Apache Log4j software library. This vulnerability allowed a successful threat actor to take control of a network system and cause a variety of damage, including the ability to launch ransomware, steal and destroy victim information, deploy malware, and disrupt internal and infrastructure operational control. Insurance regulators from four states have recently issued guidance in response to the threat, and it is likely more insurance commissioners will follow suit.
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Discerning Data Cyber Vulnerability Alert: Log4j
According to numerous government and media sources, malicious cyber actors are targeting a new “zero day” vulnerability on a massive scale. This vulnerability, referred to as “Log4j” or “Log4Shell,” has resulted in widespread exploitation of a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) in Apache’s Log4j software library.
Read the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)’s guidance on the Log4j vulnerability here.
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New York Department of Financial Services Issues New Guidance on Multi-Factor Authentication and Cybersecurity Frameworks
With cyberattacks continuing to plague the financial services industry, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) recently released new guidance for regulated entities related to the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and cybersecurity frameworks.
On December 7, 2021, NYDFS issued a formal Industry Letter entitled Guidance on Multi-Factor Authentication. According to the Industry Letter, MFA “is an essential part of cybersecurity hygiene . . . which is why it was one of the few technical controls explicitly required by” the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation, 23 NYCRR Part 500 (the Cybersecurity Regulation). However, the Industry Letter goes on to note that “MFA weaknesses are the most common cybersecurity gap exploited at financial services companies,” most often due to MFA “being absent, not fully implemented, or configured improperly.” Specifically, NYDFS noted that, from January 2020 to July 2021, more than 18.3 million consumers were impacted by cybersecurity incidents reported to NYDFS that were linked to an MFA failure.