Building Cyber Security Resilience: NIS 2 enters into force

30 January, 2023
The NIS 2 Directive (Directive 2022/2555) on measures for a high common level of cyber security across the EU has now entered into force. Member states must now incorporate the provisions into their national law by October 2024. NIS 2 will replace its predecessor – NIS (Directive 2016/1148), which was the first cross-sector cyber security law in the EU. NIS 2 has been necessary because the speed at which network and information systems have developed into a central feature of everyday life has led to greater interconnectedness, including in cross-border exchanges and, with this, has come an expansion of the cyber threat landscape. The number, magnitude, sophistication, frequency and impact of incidents are increasing, and can impede the pursuit of economic activities in the internal market, generating financial loss, undermining user confidence and causing major damage to the Union’s economy and society. Cyber security preparedness and effectiveness are therefore now more essential than ever to the proper functioning of the internal market; "adapted, coordinated and innovative responses" are required in all member states, says the EU. NIS was not implemented consistently across member states with, for example, some services being categorised as "essential" in some countries but not in others. Read more

Building resilience: a top priority for the UK

21 December, 2022
The UK Government published its Resilience Framework on 19 December 2022. This step recognises that crises are likely to be greater than we have been used to in both frequency and scale in the next decade, given what the government describes as "an increasingly volatile world, defined by geopolitical and geoeconomics shifts, rapid technological change and a changing climate." Read more

Future of Consumer APAC: Confronting complexity in cybersecurity trends for the consumer sector

18 July, 2022
Cameron Whittfield and Peggy Chow discuss the latest cybersecurity trends for consumer-facing companies including external threats which may include working with third parties and complex supply chains through to the malicious targeting of companies with ransomware, current affairs and social engineering, the cryptocurrency marketplace and geopolitical factors. They emphasise the importance of internal stakeholders speaking … Read more

US Congress enacts significant new law mandating cyber incident and ransomware reporting on businesses

25 March, 2022
On March 15, 2022, US President Joe Biden signed the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA or the Act) into law.  Under its provisions, a broad range of private and public-sector entities operating in “critical infrastructure” sectors will for the first time have mandatory reporting obligations in connection with “cyber incidents” and ransomware attacks.  Specifically, “covered entities” are required to report certain “substantial” cyber incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 72 hours of the event, and to report ransomware payments within 24 hours of payment. Read more

Article published – Lloyd v Google: the upshot for data class actions

01 March, 2022
The exponential growth in the volume of data being collected and shared, along with the ease and reduced costs of gathering, analysing, using and exploiting data, has resulted in a corresponding increase in data protection laws and regulations. Against that background, data class actions have been a growing phenomenon, driven in part by the interest of claimant law firms and litigation funders in this area. Read more

Hong Kong, can you handle this? The HKMA proposes new standards for operational resilience

15 February, 2022
Following the HKMA’s 21 April 2021 circular highlighting the additional guidance issued by the BCBS on 31 March 2021, namely the Principles for Operational Resilience and the Revised Principles for Sound Management of Operational Risk, the HKMA launched a consultation on 22 December 2021 on a new proposed Supervisory Policy Manual module OR-2 (Operational Resilience) and proposed amendments to existing SPM modules TM-G-2 (Business Continuity Planning) and OR-1 (Operational Risk Management) in order to align with the BCBS’s operational resilience guidance. Read more

Implementation of the new EU standard contractual clauses and obligation to undertake a “TIA” – are you prepared?

16 November, 2021
The new EU standard contractual clauses (New EU SCCs) came into force on 27 September 2021 for the transfer of personal data from the EEA to third countries under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) (GDPR). The European Commission Implementing Decisions ((2001/497/EC) and (2010/87/EU)) which incorporated the previous standard contractual clauses (Old EU SCCs), were repealed on that day. Read more

Supreme Court finds claim for compensation under data protection legislation cannot proceed on “opt-out basis” in high profile Lloyd v Google case

10 November, 2021
In its judgment this morning the Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal's decision in the high profile Lloyd v Google case, which would have opened the floodgates for class actions for compensation for loss of control of personal data to be brought on behalf of very large numbers of individuals without identifying class members: Lloyd v Google LLC [2021] UKSC 50. Read more