November 30, 2014
The Economist in the excellent article Cryptography for dummies highlights the development in on line security which is both a boost and a bane for regulators. Encryption is a key tool to Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this month the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) again flexed its regulatory muscles, this time in obtaining injunctions against Read the rest of this entry »
Privacy and the medical sector should be synonymous. It is present in one of the world’s oldest oaths, the Hippocratic Oath. The classical version Read the rest of this entry »
Home Depot has the dubious distinction of suffering one of the biggest data breaches ever (I have posted on it here, here and here). Which is saying something given the spectacularly large data breaches of the last few years. But the number of records accessed is only the start of a problem for an organisation which has had a major data breach. There can be a major impact to Read the rest of this entry »
November 28, 2014
In Hynes v. Western Regional Integrated Health Authority, 2014 NLTD(G) 137 the Supreme Court of Newfoundland found that notwithstanding the existence of the statutory invasion of privacy law does not preclude the existence of the common law “intrusion upon seclusion” tort as Read the rest of this entry »
For those solicitors and barristers practising in Corporations and insolvency law it is worth noting the passage of the Corporations Legislation Amendment (Deregulatory and Other Measures) Bill 2014 through the House of Representatives yesterday. While anything can happen in the Senate it is hardly a contentious piece of legislation. Its passage is assured.
The Bill, as the summary on the Parliamentary Business page on the bill states, will:
provide that a general meeting of a company must only be arranged if members with at least five per cent of voting shares make the request; reduce the remuneration reporting requirements; clarify the circumstances in which a financial year may be determined to be less than 12 months; and exempt certain companies limited by guarantee from the need to appoint or retain an auditor; and Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 to: enable members of the Takeovers Panel to perform duties while in Australia and overseas; and provide that the Remuneration Tribunal is responsible for setting the terms and conditions of Chairs and members of the Financial Reporting Council, the Australian Accounting Standards Board and the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
The effect of the BIll include Read the rest of this entry »
November 27, 2014
The Washington Times has a very interesting piece on the impact, pardon the pun, of the growing use of drones on commercial airliners in Near-collisions between drones, airliners surge, new FAA reports show. The story has a link to the list of near mid air collisions with drones since 1 June (found here). The incidents reported highlight a Read the rest of this entry »
November 26, 2014
Closed circuit televisions may be ubiqutious and enjoy a certain cachet in crime fighting, even if the evidence in support is somewhat patchy and overblown. What is downplayed is Read the rest of this entry »
This Friday ACMA is conducting a webcast as part of its Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI) portal to fight against Malware.
It is trite to say that Malware is a very significant and ongoing challenge to maintaining proper data security. Just a few days ago Symantec in a post on its website highlighted a serious problem associated with sophisticated malware programs in Regin: Top-tier espionage tool enables stealthy surveillance and accompanying white paper. It is imprudent for an organisation which suffers a data breach because of a malware attack to claim, ipso facto, there was nothing that could be done. Conversely a malware infection does not of itself constitute non compliance with regulatory obligations. There is no strict liability under Read the rest of this entry »
The New South Wales Privacy Commissioner has launched an on line tool, titled Privacy Governance Framework, to assist in the management of personal information. It is found in PDF format here.
The announcement Read the rest of this entry »