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In March 2017, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) cybersecurity regulations — known as 23 NYCRR Part 500 — went into effect. According to the regulation, “any Person operating under or required to operate under a license, registration, charter, certificate, permit, accreditation or similar authorization under the Banking Law, the Insurance Law or the Financial Services Law” is considered a covered entity and must comply.

After years of debate over whether to impose new cybersecurity regulations on companies,  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws went into effect in Europe in May 2018. Already we’ve seen several data breach victims ordered to pay fines under the new rules and cookie disclosure notices are popping up on more websites than ever. 

Last month, the EU NIS Directive (Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems) went into effect. This directive is the first EU-wide piece of legislation specifically focused on cybersecurity. Its goal is to “achieve a high common level of security of network and information systems within EU.” Network and information systems, and the essential services they support, play a vital role in society; their reliability and security are essential to everyday activities.

The implementation of many strict cybersecurity regulations and requirements (including GDPR, NYDFS, and more) continues to increase on a global scale. 2018 has also brought about the continuation of strict cybersecurity regulations in the Asia Pacific region: most notably in Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. This year, one new requirement from 2017, the Securities & Futures Commission’s Guidelines, go into effect.

In February of 2017, Australia’s Federal Parliament passed the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017, amending the Privacy Act of 1988. These new mandatory breach notification requirements officially went into effect last month, February 22, 2018. The Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme establishes new requirements for organizations around the notification of data breaches that are “likely to result in serious harm.” Following suit with the GDPR, this new law aims to provide greater protection of personal information for individuals and transparency into data privacy practices of organizations. The amendment pertains to all organizations that are already expected to comply with the Privacy Act, also referred to as APP Entities, including both federal agencies and organizations (for profit and not-for-profit) with $3 million or more in annual turnover.

Last year, there were several new cybersecurity developments introduced around the globe to reduce the risk of catastrophic cyber events at national critical infrastructure. These include regulations from the New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS), the White House’s Executive Order on Cybersecurity, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), China’s new Cybersecurity Law, and Hong Kong’s Cybersecurity Fortification Initiative.

If your company processes the data of individuals who reside in the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is likely a hot topic around the office right now. Once the regulation goes into effect in May 2018, companies in violation of the GDPR could face massive penalties. But creating a compliance plan for your company can be quite difficult if you’re unfamiliar with the language used in the regulation.

In March 2017, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) cybersecurity regulations—known as 23 NYCRR Part 500—went into effect. According to the regulation, “any Person operating under or required to operate under a license, registration, charter, certificate, permit, accreditation or similar authorization under the Banking Law, the Insurance Law or the Financial Services Law” is considered a covered entity and must comply.

As a U.S.-based company, you may be asking yourself, “Does my company need to prepare for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?” Simply put, if you process personal data for anyone in the European Union, the answer is very likely yes.

The goal of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in May 2018, is to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals in the EU as it pertains to their personal data. As you might imagine, it is a broad and complex piece of legislation, with far-reaching implications for businesses inside and outside the EU.

Financial regulators have long been concerned about the cyber risk associated with third-party- supplied products or services in financial institutions. For example, in 2013, federal financial regulators put out an issuance to financial institutions regarding how to manage third-party cyber risk. Over the last few years since this 2013 bulletin was published, the attention on third-party risk has continued to increase and the topic has been included on several examination priorities published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Reserve.

This is the third post in a series exploring how Security Ratings can address key components of the NIST cybersecurity guidelines. You can read the first post here and the second post here.

In recent months, we’ve seen a variety of regulators from Finance to Defense cite the importance of third party cyber risk management. You can now add the Federal Trade Commission to the list.

This is the second post in a series exploring how Security Ratings can address key components of the NIST cybersecurity guidelines. You can read the first post here.

This is the introductory post in a series exploring how security ratings can address key aspects of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. The purpose of these posts is to outline how security and risk professionals can leverage Bitsight’s ratings to drive better risk management through the lens of the NIST framework.