In the world of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook troubles, GDPR, and most recently, the new California privacy law, data protection and privacy have become a mainstream topic of conversation.  That is why the IAPP Global Privacy Summit of 2018 this year was described as “A Monumental Conference for A Profession at Crossroads.” As always, the world’s biggest privacy conference hosted more than 3,500 attendees, collaborating and seeking answers to important global privacy issues, highlighting topics such as survival, resilience, digital reputation, and equality, with a large focus in trust.

2019 began with the United States’ longest government shut down ever, halting the work of many federal agencies and leaving analysts especially concerned for the Nation’s cyber security.  According to The Hill, Lawmakers are experiencing growing concerns that the “lingering effects” of the government shutdown, coupled with increased efforts from hostile foreign actors, have left the United States vulnerable to cyber threats. 

With fake news becoming an ever-more-present issue in the media today, government agencies took measures to avoid this issue by developing a program to block fake or spoofed emails from being sent from government domain email addresses. The Department of Homeland Security took this initiative in October of 2017 by announcing that all federal agencies had exactly one year to implement the email authentication and reporting protocol program.

September 21, 2018 By: Connor Breza President Trump unveiled his administration’s cybersecurity strategy this week, promoting it as “America’s first cybersecurity strategy in 15 years”.  President Trump’s strategy builds off of his 2017 Executive Order “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure,” laying out four “key tenets”. 

Sponsor Tables Shine at the Cyber Risk Summit In Philly August 6th, 2018   NetDiligence held its 9th annual Cyber Risk Summit on June 12-14th in Philadelphia.  This year, the conference focused on educating attendees on current breach risk management protocols and practical knowledge for cybersecurity insurance brokers, attorneys and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). eWhiteHouseWatch had the privilege to cover the conference in its entirety again this year. A conference regular, Nick Economidis of Crum & Forster noted that “the conference has grown tremendously over the past nine years because it features experts from various disciplines and provides real insights.”

By: Frank X. Wukovits 4/5/2018   On March 23, 2018, the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data [CLOUD] Act was signed into law as a part of the Omnibus Spending Bill. In short, the legislation sets forth a myriad of provisions involving procedures and methods of storage, access, and retrieval of data between the United States and foreign governmental entities. As a result, the CLOUD Act's provisions create a potential (and perhaps inevitable) conflict between privacy and efficient governance.