On December 4, 2020 the President signed into law the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020, Pub. L. No. 116-207 (the “IoT Act”). The legislative purpose behind the new law is to ensure the highest level of cybersecurity at federal agencies by working collaboratively within government, industry and academia. Pub. L. No. 116-207 § 2.

The IoT Act mandates specific actions by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding: (i) standards and guidelines for IoT devices, (ii) determining whether federal agencies adhere to those standards, (iii)implementing guidelines to disclose security vulnerabilities to contractors and report the resolution of those vulnerabilities.Continue Reading Congress Passes the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act

Conceptual image about how a laptop computer with internet open a virtual door to worldwide information sharing.Keypoint: 2020 promises to be another ground-breaking year in privacy and cybersecurity law in the United States.

2019 was an exciting year in privacy and cybersecurity law. In the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was the most significant story, but there also were developments in states such as New York and Nevada. Numerous other states also considered consumer privacy legislation, and federal lawmakers even jumped into the fray, proposing a variety of bills and regulations. Overseas, GDPR garnered the most headlines of course, but other countries, such as Brazil, also made news.

But 2019 was just the start. There is no doubt that privacy and cybersecurity law is undergoing a fundamental change in the United States. If nothing else, the legal landscape of privacy law in the United States promises to look very different by the end of the year.

Below we discuss what we anticipate will be the biggest stories in 2020 and beyond.Continue Reading The Year to Come in U.S. Privacy & Cybersecurity Law

Keypoint: As of January 1, 2020, manufacturers of IoT devices will need to comply with new laws in California and Oregon.

It may be hard to believe but the California Consumer Privacy Act is not the only new law that will go into effect on January 1, 2020. Rather, new laws in California and Oregon that regulate IoT devices also will go into effect on that date. Below is an overview of those laws.Continue Reading Two New State IoT Laws Go into Effect on January 1

Blockchain technology is seeing increasingly wide use internationally, but security issues are becoming a major problem.

Blockchain is a public electronic ledger that can be openly shared among users and that creates an unchangeable record of their transactions. Each transaction, or “block”, is time-stamped and linked to the previous one. Each block is then linked to a specific participant. Blockchain can only be updated by consensus between users in the system, and when new data is entered, it can never be erased, edited, adjusted, or changed.Continue Reading What the Cryptocurrency Hacks Mean for the Security of Blockchain

The influence of the Internet of Things (IoT) will undoubtedly be transformational with a total potential economic impact estimated to be $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025. In the race into the IoT marketplace, there are both known and unknown legal hurdles that will affect those who offer of goods and services during the proliferation of the Internet of Things.
Continue Reading Hurdles the Internet of Things Must Clear for Manufacturers and Providers