Trend: Pilot Project for Local Governments to Use Data Sharing for Code Enforcement

Who is fighting blight with data sharing? New York cities of Amsterdam, Gloversville, Schenectady and Troy and the University of Albany’s Center for Technology in Government

What data are these cities sharing? code enforcement–related data and develop best practices for tackling the problem

Why are they sharing data? Blight costs the cities.  Direct blight costs include:

  • code enforcement
  • administration
  • engineering
  • property maintenance

Indirect blight fighting costs for cities are: 

  • uncollected taxes
  • devaluation of adjacent properties
  • impact on city services such as police and fire calls.

This new pilot project in a regional view is “groundbreaking.”

State Tech Magazine | Blight Busters

24 States Provide Economic Incentives for Data Centers

  • Alabama: 
    • ​30 years of tax breaks
    • for data centers investing $400 million
    • that create at least 20 jobs
    • with an average annual compensation of $40,000
  • Alaska NONE
  • Arkansas None specific to data centers, have used other tax incentives for data centers
  • California NONE
  • ColoradoNONE
    • in 2015 Colorado tried to pass a sales tax refund on equipment for data centers
  • Connecticut 
    • A state economic development ffice granted $6 million to a data center
  • Delaware NONE
  • Florida, none specific to data centers, have used other tax incentives for data centers
  • Georgia
    • ​sales tax exemption for equipment in data centers investing at least $15 million annually
  • Hawaii,  none specific to data centers, have used other job creation incentives for data centers
  • ​Idaho NONE
  • Illinois NONE
  • Indiana
    • data centers investing at least $10 million can receive local personal property tax exemptions on their equipment
    • Other tax incentives have also been awarded
  • Iowa
    • ​sales tax breaks to data centers investing as little as $1 million
    • larger incentives for projects topping $200 million
    • Iowa has no property tax on equipment
  • Kansas, none specific to data centers, but
    • Kansas imposes no property tax on new equipment
  • Kentucky
    • ​sales tax refund for computer system equipment for data centers investing at least $100 million
  • Louisianna NONE
  • Maine, None specific to data centers, have used general economic-development programs for data centers
  • Maryland, none specific to data centers, but did authorize a conditional loan for $300,000 to a data center
  • Massachusettes, None specific to data centers, but have awarded $25 million grant and $14.5 million in tax credits to data centers
  • Michigan, none specific to data centers, but does use other economic development programs for data centers to a tune of $7 mllion
  • Minnesota
    • ​data centers with 25,000 square feet
    • costing at least $30 million
    • qualify for 20-year sales tax exemption on equipment and energy
    • + a permanent property tax exemption on equipment
  • Mississippi
    • ​sales tax exemption on computer equipment for data centers
    • that invest at least $50 million
    • that create at least 50 jobs
    • these jobs must pay 150% of the average state wage
  • Missouri
    • ​New data centers can qualify for $25 million if
      • they employ at least 10 people in well-paying jobs.
    • Older data centers can qualify by:
      • investing at least $5 million and adding five well-paying jobs
  • Montana NONE
    • And, no state sales tax
  • Nebraska
    • ​Has a tiered system that allows  $3 million if the data center:
      • Employs at least 30 people, or
      • It invests at least $37 million while holding employment steady
  • Nevada
    • ​ Expanded sales and property tax exemptions for data centers
      • amounted to  $229 million of tax breaks for Switch
  • New Hampshire “No incentives for businesses”
  • New Jersey
    • “​authorized a projected $134 million in incentives to about a dozen businesses for data-center projects since 2000″
  • New Mexico NONE
  • New York 
    • sales tax exemption for equipment used by Internet data centers
  • North Carolina
    • ​sales tax exemption for equipment and electricity used by data centers that invest at least $150 million in poorer counties or $225 million in other counties.
  • North Dakota
    • ​sales tax exemption on computer equipment for data centers of at least 16,000 square feet.
  • Ohio
    • ​ sales tax break for data centers that invest at least $100 million &
    • have a required payroll threshold of  $1.5 million
  • Oklahoma
    • ​sales tax exemption for equipment bought by businesses engaged in computer services or data processing, as long as most of the revenue comes from out-of-state sales
  • Oregon None Specific to data centers, but
    • ​no sales tax & 
    • property tax exemptions through local enterprise zones
  • Pennsylvania None
    • Bills calling for a sales tax exemption for data centers are pending  in the current legislatie session
  • Rhode Island  NONE​
  • South Carolina 
    • ​sales tax exemption on computer equipment and electricity used in data centers
    • that invest at least $50 million
    • employ at least 25 people in well-paying jobs.
  • South Dakota None, but have used general economic development programs
  • Tennessee
    • ​sales tax breaks on computer equipment and electricity for data centers that invest at least $250 million
  • Texas
    • ​sales tax exemption on equipment and electricity for data centers 
    • that contain at least 100,000 square feet
    • invest at least $200 million
    • employ at least 20 people at above-average wage
  • Utah ​None, but have used general economic development programs
  • Vermont  NONE
  • Virginia
    • ​sales tax exemptions for data centers
    • it is estimated Virginia authorized $48 million in incentives for data centers
  • Washington
    • ​ sales tax exemption
  • West Virginia 
    • ​sales tax exemption and a property tax break on equipment
  • Wisconsin  None, but have used general economic development programs
  • Wyoming 
    • ​Data centers that invest at least $5 million, receive  a sales tax exemption on computer equipment. 
    • Data centers that invest at least $50 million also can get a sales tax break on power supplies and cooling equipment.

NY Times | via AP | State-By-State Look at Incentives for Computer Data Centers

3 Federal Regulatory Data Security Acts Point to State Legislation on the Horizon

What have the feds done for us lately to protect our data security?

1.     Weeks ago the FDA stopped the use of a pump for infusion therapy because it could be hacked

2.     July’s recall of 1.4 million Chryslers, Dodges & Jeeps because of hacking the auto software

3.     The SEC following through on enforcement for insider trading due to a computer hack

Let’s not forget it has also been the year of:

  • student data breaches
  • insurance companies data breaches
  • a fear of data security breaches at utilities, including power grids
  • increase in the number of data security insurance policies

Total of 7 reasons, data security will move toward the top of legislative agendas.

Inside Council | Cybersecurity litigation: The tip of the iceberg, part two: Regulation and legislation

 

TX Chair of the Subcommittee on Information Technology on Data Security

Texas Congressman Hurd, the chairman of the new House Oversight Subcommittee on Information Technology, in an interview with Passcode says:

  • “One of the things that was so egregious to me is that OPM never said, ‘I’m sorry,’
  •  He also “criticized the agency for its failure to be transparent about notifying victims of the breach.”

Key words for business and policy people: transparency & notification.

The Hill: IT lawmaker: ‘Outrageous’ that OPM hasn’t apologized

Trend: Cyber Insurance $20 Billion in insurance premiums.

Insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty offers caluclated predictions about cyber security and insurance policies:

  • Cyber security costs the US $108 billion/year
  • By 2025, cyber security insurance will be a $20 billion in annual premiums globally
    • In 2015, annual cyber insurance premiums are $2 Billion globally
  • 70% of breaches occur in restaurants
  • To recoup losses after a hack, companies should count on  $200 per record that gets compromised.
     

North Bay Business Journal: As data breaches grow, so does cyber liability insurance
 

Regulatory Trend: Agency Fines for Failing Policies before Data Breach

Which agency is issuing fines for lacking data security policies? The Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Why is the SEC fining a company? Two reasons:

  1. It failied to have an adequate daa security policy in place before it experienced a data breach that exposed financial records of 100,000.
    1. Let’s repeat, the company never adopted written policies and procedures
    2. The company did not conduct periodic risk assessments
    3. The company did not implement a firewall
    4. The company did not encrypt its personally-identifiable information
    5. The company did not maintain a response plan for any incidents either. 
  2. The financial information was stored on a third party-hosted web server.

What was the data breach that triggered the $75,000 fine? In July 2013, the 3rd party web server was breached by an unknown hacker from China after which the financial company contacted all parties offering free identity theft monitoring

Investment News: SEC nails advisory firm for cybersecurity failure before data breach

Federal Government Biometric Data Breach. 5.6 Million Fingerprints Revealed

The federal government data breach not only compromised personal data of 21.5 Million former and current federal employees but also compromised 5.6 Million finger prints. 

That’s 4.5 million more than initially reported. 

Rueters | Deluth News Tribune | Hackers steal 5.6 million fingerprint records in government data breach

The Consumerist: Federal Data Breach Included 5.6M Compromised Fingerprints, Five Times The Original Estimate 

Health Care Data Breaches top 100 Million in 2015 + 3 more health care data breach stats

  1. A study funded by data security firm, ID Experts, found since 2010, health care data breaches up 125%
  2. In 2015,  100 million health care files stolen (Think: Anthem, Premera, Carefirst breaches)
  3. In 2014, the medical/healthcare sector accounted for the highest percentage of breaches at 42.5% according to the data security firm, IDT911
  4. This year’s largest health care data breach so far is the Premera medical data compromise, which may have exposed 11 million medical records

ABC News: The Medical Identity Theft Apocalypse? Fear the Walking Files

Lege Trend: State Data Security Laws Apply to Insurers. 8 states and counting.

8 states have specifically applied thier data breach notificagtion requirements to insurers. 

  • California
  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • New Hampshire
  • Ohio
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin

The laws vary on these points, but all specifically apply to insurers:

  • who has to be notified
  • when notification has be given
  • what information triggers a notification
  • what powers an Attorney General has
  • which entities have to provide the notification

JD Supra | Baker Hostetler | State Data Breach Notification Requirements Specifically Applicable to Insurers

Data Security Coming to Presidential Campaigns Near You

A a security and privacy group of tech savvy types reviewed presidential candidate websites, and the results are not good if you like security and privacy.

17 of 23 candidates failed according to the The Online Trust Alliance, a nonprofit backed by businesses in the tech industry.

Why such a poor showing for data security this campaign season?

  • nonexistent or inadequate privacy policy disclosures
  • they reserve the right to liberally share or sell their donors and site visitors’ personally identifiable information

Some positive moves on data security by campaigns:

  • 70 percent using encrypted website

Which candidates fared the best?

  • Jeb Bush
  • Chris Christie
  • Rick Santorum
  • Scott Walker
  • Martin O’Malley
  • Lincoln Chafee

 The Hill  Most 2016 campaign websites receive failing privacy grades

Fortune:  Here’s why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s campaign websites failed a security test