Peter A Clarke

The major data breach of Sony Pictures is resulting in a familiar wave of consequential loss and damage; cost of repair, reputational damage and loss leading response to mitigate damage.  In Sony hires Mandiant to clean up after cyber attack the story focuses on the very expensive and embarrassing task of having outside security experts having to work through the cyber wreckage left by hackers.  The cost of the hack for Sony has been the leaking of valuable IP, in the form of yet to be released films as reported in  Upcoming Sony Pictures films leak online in wake of hack.  All of this highlights the critical importance of maintaining adequate data security and response strategies in the event of a breach.
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In Thrill-seeking stunts elicit drone safety concerns the Sydney Morning Herald does a good roundup of how drones are both becoming more common, used more adventoursly and becoming a growing mobile safety concern. As a piece it is a reasonable Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »