BizTech Law Blog
As a business or business owner, one thing to consider when creating a cybersecurity plan, is a vendor management program. Vendor management programs can help businesses address risks that arise when working with vendors and third parties that might be receiving sensitive information or business information.
For an introduction to these areas, visit Taylor's previous video, an Introduction to Data Privacy, Cybersecurity and Third Party Vendor Management.
In recent years, security risks and data breaches have increased and businesses are working to be better equipped to respond to emergency cyber attack and breach situations.
With the rise of data breaches and regulatory enforcement, businesses must acknowledge cybersecurity and data privacy issues as significant business risks.
On June 28, California governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. The Act will significantly impact companies (including many based outside of California) and United States legislation in the coming months, although it is unclear whether the new law will serve as an example for other states or an outlier. Importantly, the Act contains a number of "GDPR-like" features, making it the most restrictive data privacy law that the United States has ever seen.
It's not hyperbole to say that the General Data Protection Regulation's May 25th enforcement date marks one of the largest shifts in the history of privacy laws.
This is the first article in a series on Third Party and Vendor Management. The next article in this series discusses provisions for vendor contracts.
Today, the use of software as a service ("SaaS") is widespread and the cybersecurity considerations are an afterthought.
Business owners are increasingly turning to cloud storage as an alternative to maintaining their own servers. The three most popular cloud storage services are Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive. Each service comes with a specific amount of free storage and allows users to upgrade for a fee. For a helpful comparison of these three choices, see here. Cloud storage providers are promising upgraded security, but there are certain steps business owners can take themselves to protect their data.
The applicability of sales tax in Internet transactions is in the spotlight and one of the most contentious issues in the state tax arena. With states strapped for cash, some legislatures are focusing on a perceived subsidy that benefits Internet retailers to the detriment of "brick-and-mortar" retailers. Case and point, when you travel to the mall and buy the latest Harry Potter book, sales tax will be charged. However, order that same book via an Internet retailer, such as Amazon.com, and no sales tax is charged. So what gives?
Cloud computing and its various delivery methods continue to grow at an impressive rate. A potent example of this growth is "software as a service," or SaaS, a product that allows consumers to access software remotely over the Internet for a fee. For example, Google Docs, Google’s “software as a service” office suite, allows users to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets via software stored remotely on Google’s servers.
