The UK Jurisdictional Taskforce (UKJT) published a Legal Statement on 18 November 2019 concluding that there is no bar under English law for cryptoassets to have the legal status of property and for smart contracts to be legally binding. The UKJT is one of 6 taskforces under the Law Tech Delivery Panel (LTDP), a government–backed … Read more
Last week, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport issued a Call for Views on the certification scheme currently anticipated by Regulation (EU) 2019/881 (the Cybersecurity Act) after Brexit. The closing date for responses has been extended to 15 October 2019. In the issued document, the UK Government proposes to maintain “a close relationship with the EU … Read more
In the latest development in the EU’s long-running debate on the preferred communication technology standard for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), the Council of the EU has rejected the Commission’s proposed legislation favouring Wi-Fi technology (the “Regulation“). Twenty one (of twenty eight) Member States voted against the Regulation; a result seen as victory for proponents … Read more
Cyber-attacks are a continuous threat to both businesses and charities. From the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 (available here as a PDF), we can see that fewer businesses are identifying breaches than in previous years, but the ones that are identifying breaches are typically experiencing more of them. Approximately 32% of businesses and 22% of … Read more
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Information Commission Office (ICO) have clarified their roles in relation to breaches of cyber security. NCSC manages cyber incidents at a national level to prevent harm being caused to both victims and the UK overall. It helps manage the response at a governmental level and seeks to ensure that lessons are learned to help deter future attacks. The ICO is the independent regulator for enforcing and monitoring data protection legislation and the competent authority for Digital Service Providers under the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive. The ICO is the first port of call for organisations who have suffered a breach of cyber security. Read more
Earlier this week the UK government published the long-awaited Telecoms Supply Chain Review (available here), setting out its plans more heavily to regulate the UK telecoms sector in order to improve cyber security risk management, policy and enforcement. Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“) has published proposals to ban the sale of derivatives or exchange traded notes (“ETNs“) which reference certain types of cryptoassets (“crypto–derivatives“), to address harm posed to retail consumers. The scope of the ban would extend to the sale, marketing and distribution of all derivatives (ie. options, futures and contracts for … Read more
The ICO has published a notice of its intent to fine British Airways £183.39 million for its 2018 data breach where the personal data of 500,000 customers was stolen by hackers; This is the first ‘mega fine’ issued by a European data regulator since the implementation of the GDPR; The ICO acted as lead supervisory … Read more
In light of the prevalence of global on-demand and internet content services (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube), Ofcom has today announced a range of measures to ensure that the Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in the UK remain easy to find on TV guides, there is high quality content for children and teenagers, and … Read more
