PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

Cartoon: GDPR Compliance

Organizations are racing to get ready for the GDPR implementation date of May 25, 2018.  Complete GDPR compliance in a few months is likely not feasible for many organizations, but this shouldn’t mean that these organizations should give up.  Making a good-faith effort and continuing to strive to improve are quite worthwhile.

HIPAA Whiteboard and HIPAA Interactive Whiteboard

Recently, I created two new HIPAA training resources. HIPAA Whiteboard I created a 1-page visual summary of HIPAA, which I call the HIPAA Whiteboard.  The idea was to summarize HIPAA in a concise and visually-engaging way.  You can download a PDF handout version here.  We’ve been licensing it to many organizations for training and awareness purposes. […]

GDPR Whiteboard and GDPR Interactive Whiteboard

Recently, I created two new GDPR training resources. GDPR Whiteboard I created a 1-page visual summary of the GDPR, which I call the GDPR Whiteboard.  The idea was to capture the key points of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a succinct and visually-engaging way.  It has become quite popular, receiving thousands of downloads.  You […]

Risk and Anxiety: A Theory of Data Breach Harms

My new article was just published: Risk and Anxiety: A Theory of Data Breach Harms,  96 Texas Law Review 737 (2018).  I co-authored the piece with Professor Danielle Keats Citron.  We argue that the issue of harm needs a serious rethinking. Courts are too quick to conclude that data breaches don’t create harm.  There are two […]

The Funniest Hacker Stock Photos 4.0: The Future of Hacking

It’s time for another installment of the funniest hacker stock photos.  Because I create information security awareness training (and HIPAA security training too), I’m always in the hunt for hacker photos. For this round, I focus on the future of hacking, so I looked closely for hacker stock photos that depicted the most state-of-the-art hacking […]

Cartoon: GDPR Right to Be Forgotten

The GDPR Article 17 provides for a right to erasure — commonly known as the “right to be forgotten.”  Data subjects may request that an organization erase their personal data “without undue delay” under a number of circumstances.  These circumstances include when the data is no longer relevant to the purposes of collection, when consent […]

FTC v. AT&T Mobility

In a very important decision, FTC v. AT&T Mobility (9th Cir. 2018 en banc),  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit en banc reversed an earlier panel decision that severely limited the FTC’s jurisdiction to protect privacy and data security.  I strongly criticized the panel decision in an previous blog post. The FTC has taken […]

The International Privacy+Security Forum

The International Privacy+Security Forum (February 26-27, 2018 in Washington DC) is next week. The International Forum is a new annual sister event to the Privacy+Security Forum, an annual event held in October at George Washington University in Washington, DC.  The regular Privacy+Security Forum will be in its 4th year in 2018.  This past year, we […]

Cartoon: GDPR’s Scope

I turned my short GDPR vignette about GDPR’s territorial scope into a cartoon.  The GDPR applies not just to all EU organizations that process personal data.  The GDPR also applies to non-EU established organizations that offer goods and services to EU citizens or that monitor behavior within the EU. The GDPR thus has quite a long […]

Data Security Is Worsening: 2017 Was the Worst Year Yet

Every year, we hear about how climate change is worsening. It seems the same story is happening with data security. Last year was the worst year in recorded data breach history. More than 5,200 breaches were reported in 2017, with more than 7.8 billion records compromised. By comparison, there are 7.6 billion people on Earth, […]