As we have reported previously on our blog, federal agencies, including the FTC, NLRB and EEOC have been very active in taking action against privacy and information security violations. This trend continues with the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) recent announcement of a settlement with three former executives a brokerage firm (GunnAllen Financial, Inc.). The SEC alleged that the former executives violated the Commission's Privacy Rule and Safeguards Rule (Regulation S-P) and aided and abetted the firm in violating these rules. This enforcement action marks the first time the SEC assessed financial penalties against individuals charged solely with violating Regulation S-P.
This month, federal agencies and FINRA have announced significant privacy enforcement actions that have resulted in millions of dollars in fines. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a $4.3M fine on a health plan for violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule; the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with several resellers of consumer reports allegations that the resellers failed to adequately safeguard consumer information; and FINRA imposed a $600K fine on two securities firms for failure to safeguard access to customer records. Here are the details:
This post is Part Two of my FAQ on the proposed modifications to the HIPAA Rules issued by HHS last week. Part Two focuses on the proposed modifications to the Privacy Rule.
As reported last week, on Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") issued its long-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") on Modifications to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the "HITECH" Act). For those of us who subscribe to numerous technology and law listservs, this meant emailboxes flooded with opinions, criticism, speculation, and flat-out fear mongering. We thought people might like to know what the proposed modifications actually say, and what they mean. So, this post provides Part One of a FAQ on the 234 page NPRM. This post, Part One, addresses general issues (including significant changes involving subcontractors) and proposed modifications to the HIPAA Security and Enforcement Rules. Part Two, later this week, will address the proposed modifications to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
On Tuesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (the "Joint Agencies") issued the Final Model Privacy Form under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).