We ended 2017 by making predictions about what 2018 will bring to the privacy and cybersecurity world.  We’ll start 2018 by looking at how we fared in our 2017 predictions.  Spoiler alert, we nailed it. Expansion of Breach Notification Requirements We’ll give ourselves half credit for this one. While some states took action, Michigan did not […]

As 2017 comes to a close, the Miller Johnson Privacy & Cybersecurity team takes a moment to reflect on the past year to help predict cybersecurity trends in 2018. In 2017, our clients experienced an unprecedented number of cyber-incidents and data breaches. Our small to medium-sized business clients were impacted most. These attacks coincided with […]

Regular email, without some form of added security such as encryption, is not secure.  By that we mean when you use Outlook or Gmail to send an email to another person, unless you have deliberately added a layer of security (e.g., encryption and/or password protection), that email is not secure. Email was not designed with […]

Ever since the news broke regarding the Equifax breach affecting over 140 million people in the U.S., we have received daily phone calls from clients, friends, and family asking what they can do to protect themselves.  Should I sign up for the credit monitoring?  Am I am going to waive my right to join a […]

Yesterday. on September 7, 2017, Equifax, a credit monitoring agency, announced that the personal information of nearly half of all Americans may have been breached.  According to Equifax, criminals used “a U.S. website application vulnerability” to gain access to files that contained names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers. Equifax stated […]

On August 1, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals joined a growing number of federal courts holding the risk of future harm is enough to allow a class action to proceed following a data breach. Attias v. CareFirst, Inc., et al., involves a federal class action lawsuit brought by customers whose personal information was allegedly […]

In data privacy circles, there is constant discussion regarding the EU-US Privacy Shield and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).  While the temptation for US- based companies to take an isolationist approach and ignore these EU regulations is understandable, doing so may unintentionally subject such companies to significant liability.  All US-based organizations that hold, […]

Imagine that you have twelve (12) hours to pay or your files will be permanently destroyed.  You are the victim of a Ransomware attack. What will you do? Clocks-a-ticking. Ransomware, like WannaCry and CryptoLocker, have proven to be a common, lucrative, low-risk, criminal-enterprise.  Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to the […]

The Economic Club of Grand Rapids hosted a luncheon last Monday, May 8, addressing cybersecurity. Miller Johnson sponsored the event and several members of the Privacy and Cybersecurity team attended to hear the presentation of former FBI cyber expert James Trainor.  During his time at the FBI, Mr. Trainor investigated some of the world’s largest […]

The fear of a HIPAA breach keeps health care providers up at night. Two recent HIPAA fines are going to lead to more sleepless nights.