InfoHive – Data Security

Who started the Public Innovation Academy: Abhi Nemani of Code for America, former chief data officer of Los Angeles and CIO of Sacramento, CA

What will the Public Innovation Academy do?

• online training venture as being aimed at helping people who perform jobs that aren’t necessarily technical
• sharing lessons learned from large cities with civil servants in smaller and mid size cities

Goverment Technology | Public Innovation Academy Offers Practical Training for Gov

The Report offers these concepts to consider for future legislation:

• The regulatory and compliance costs of CCPA and GDPR which may have created uneven benefits and restrictions to certain consumers and businesses. Many companies in Texas are already complying with both laws and any Texas law should seek to compliment and not conflict with existing federal laws and frameworks.
• The Fourth Amendment protections.
• The duties and responsibilities of application resellers in governing privacy policies of third-party vendors.
• The impact of COVID-19.

The report offers these recommendations:

1. Process for ensuring that all state agencies are adhering to privacy standards, and policies are continually updated to reflect new technologies, business practices, and risks.
2. Proposals should consider a new and appropriate balance between additional consumer privacy protections and data security within a fair regulatory/compliance privacy framework.
3. Proposals should consider the impact to highly regulated data, like health information or banking data, and how those proposals compliment applicable federal law.
4. Legislation should be written broadly enough to allow the adoption of new technology and business standards.
5. Proposals should consider existing laws in Texas and other states in order to not conflict.
6. Texans have the right to know how their personal information is being used and the Legislature should consider ways to strengthen that right.

Texas Privacy Protection Advisory Council Report September 2020

The State: Michigan HB 4186 (2020 | MI)

What new information will trigger a notification if hackers get access to it?

• A state resident’s first name or first initial and last name in combination with one or more of the following data elements that relate to the resident:

• A nontruncated  Social  Security  number,  driver  license  number,  state  personal identification  card  number,  passport  number,  military  identification  number,  or other unique identification number issued on a government document.
• A financial account number.
• A  medical  or  mental  history,  treatment,  or  diagnosis  issued  by  a  health  care professional.
• A  health  insurance  policy  number  or  subscriber  identification  number  and  any unique identifier used by a health insurer.
• A username or email address, in combination with a password or a security question and answer, that would allow access to an online account that is likely to have or is used to obtain sensitive personally identifying information.

Notification timeline: Not more than 45 days from determining that a breach has occurred 

Potential fines: $2,000 for each violation or not more than $5,000 per day for each consecutive day up to a total of $250,000

The State: Massachusetts

The Legislation: H4932 (2020 | MA)

The Bonds: $1.8 billion for critical investments in IT infrastructure to assist children, underrepresented populations

Mass.Gov | Governor Baker Signs $1.8 Billion Bond Bill to Improve Information Technology, Public Safety and Food Security

East Boston Times | Legislature Enacts $1.8 Billion Bond Bill to Strengthen Information Technology, Physical Infrastructure

Add India to the list of countries considering a ban on cryptocurrency trading.

What have other Asian governments chosen to do with cryptocurrency markets? Regulation

What has China banned? initial coin offerings

Economic Times | India plans to introduce law to ban cryptocurrency trading 

How many people have register to vote over Snapchat? 407,024

Were the registrations sparked by a paid ad by a political organization? No

How did the vote registration links to Snapchat work? Snap Chat added a new feature to its app that provided voter registration information

The Hill | 400K people register to vote on Snapchat

The industries most targeted by hackers from January-June 2020:

• manufacturing
• technology
• telecom companies

Manufacturing increased an uptick in cyberattacks by 11% over 2019.

The manufacturing equipment targeted:

• business systems
• front-office systems

Rational for the increase in cyber events for manufacturing?

•  vulnerability from the large-scale disruption in their global supply chain of materials due to COVID

CQ Roll Call via Governing | Cyberattacks on Manufacturing Industry Increase During COVID

Texas Economic Development Corporation has a new website that it describes as world class. So what does the new website offer:

• mobile adaptability
• ” streamlined access to essential information and data about doing business in Texas”
• ” compiles key statewide information about infrastructure, workforce, taxes and incentives and other areas of importance in economic development”

Texas Economic Development Corporation Unveils New Website

Google is removing autofill in its search bars for that target candidates or voting.

What Google’s senior director of global policy and standards has to say:  “We’re acutely aware that with this upcoming election … people have strong opinions and given the backdrop of COVID, there’s a lot of questions about voting information and how that might play out against the backdrop of the pandemic.”

So this means no autofill supporting, opposing or endorsing candidates or for voting information. The searches can occur, but will not be autofilled.

Tech Crunch | Google says it’s eliminating Autocomplete suggestions that target candidates or voting

Google | Our latest investments in information quality in Search and News

The Country: Japan

Which bank is pushing for a national cryptocurrency? one of the nation’s national banks, the Bank of Japan

Why the urgency in Japan? China has a forthcoming cryptocurrency. The result of this, and China and Russia’s move away from an economy dependent on the dollar, is that ” the global stage has likely pushed China to turn into a leader in the computerized cash race.”

CryptoCurrency Post | Japan Speeds Up Digital Yen Roll Out