Using biometrics to verify one’s identity is no longer something you’d expect to see only in a Hollywood depiction of a dystopian future. Biometric identification has been in practical use for a while now, and the technology is getting more sophisticated every day.
As you might expect, privacy concerns have arisen along the way. And now the legal ramifications are getting more complicated.
Washington state last month passed House Bill 1493: pioneering legislation forbidding businesses from obtaining or selling biometric information without the consent of the individual. Gov. Jay Inslee is expected any day to sign the new law, which is directed at concerns about the use of biometric identifiers to commit identity fraud.
I recently sat …more
When WikiLeaks released details about the CIA’s arsenal of hacking tools last month, it was like Christmas arrived early for hackers who specialize in cracking into the business networks of financial services companies.
Mandiant, the forensics division of malware detection vendor FireEye, affirmed as much in its M-Trends 2017 report, issued shortly thereafter. The Mandiant report disclosed how cyber criminals have quickly embraced CIA-type tools to juice up their banking system attacks.
I spoke to Bob Thibodeaux, chief information security officer, at Seattle-based DefenseStorm, about this. DefenseStorm provides a security service for community banks and credit unions that monitors network traffic—specifically event log data—for …more
As a partner at the Canadian law firm Borden Ladner Gervais, Éloïse Gratton advises her clients on legal, practical and ethical ways to protect an individual’s privacy while conducting business nationally and internationally. She has testified before Canada’s House of Commons and other federal bodies and conducted training workshops attended by judges and members of the Parliament.
LastWatchdog sat down with Gratton just after she appeared on a privacy panel at CyberScout’s Privacy XChange Forum. Here’s the gist of that conversation. The text has been edited for clarity and length.
LastWatchdog: Europe and Canada are oriented toward preserving privacy for the individual; in America, not so much. Can you frame how that plays out in global commerce?
Gratton: I would …more
More organizations than ever, especially small and medium-size ones, will seek to account for the fast-rising risk of suffering a cyber attack in 2017 by buying a cyber liability policy.
The general state of security of U.S. business networks remains anemic when compared to the vast and growing capabilities of hackers with malicious intent. Companies are beginning to realize the value of offsetting this risk to an insurance carrier—and insurance companies and underwriters recognize a golden goose when they see one.
The fledgling cyber insurance market topped $3 billion in 2015, and ABI estimates the global cyber insurance market is swelling at a clip that will top $10 billion by 2020.
Related: Cyber insurance increasingly includes value-added …more