Hacking Tools Get Peer Reviewed, Too

Mar 20

From: The Atlantic

A government-led effort paves the way for data extracted from electronic devices to be accepted as evidence in court.

Kaveh Waddell

In September 2002, less than a year after Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted by a grand jury for his role in the 9/11 attacks, Moussaoui’s lawyers lodged an official complaint about how the government was handling digital evidence. They questioned the quality of the tools the government had used to extract data from some of the more than 200 hard drives that were submitted as evidence in the case—including one from Moussaoui’s own laptop.

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Scammers hit US government cybersecurity contractor with W-2 phishing scam – report

Mar 20

From: International Business Times

Defence Point Security reportedly notified employees that cybercriminals got their hands on W-2 tax data.

By

A US government cybersecurity contractor has reportedly fallen victim to scammers who accessed the firm’s W-2 tax data, after an employee became a target of their phishing scam. The cybercriminals allegedly got their hands on sensitive and personal data of employees, including name, social security number, address, compensation and tax withholding amounts, thanks to a targeted spear phishing email.

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Proposed Federal Cybersecurity Regulations for Financial Institutions Face an Uncertain Future

Mar 14

From: The National Law Journal

ARTICLE BY Joseph Facciponti Ruth Merisier Joseph V. Moreno | Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Last year’s proposed comprehensive framework for cybersecurity rules for large financial institutions is suddenly facing an uncertain future.1With the comment period having closed as of February 2017, the framework was facing criticism as unnecessary for an industry already subject to a host of federal, state, and international cybersecurity regimes. That criticism – now coupled with the Trump Administration’s general retreat from regulatory rulemaking across the board – may result in cybersecurity rules that are ultimately more limited in scope than originally envisioned, or lead to the proposed framework being abandoned altogether. In the meantime, large banks and other financial institutions must continue to comply with existing cybersecurity rules under the ever-growing scrutiny of regulators both in the United States and overseas.

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D.C. Circuit’s Brett Kavanaugh Doubles Down on Criticism of CFPB

Mar 07

From: The National Law Journal

Mike Scarcella and C. Ryan Barber, The National Law Journal

Back in October, Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, wrote a 101-page majority ruling assailing the “massive, unchecked” power of the single director-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Indeed, other than the president, the director of the CFPB is the single most powerful official in the entire United States government, at least when measured in terms of unilateral power,” Kavanaugh wrote in PHH v. CFPB, declaring the structure of the Obama-era agency unconstitutional.

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Rehearing Of PHH Vs. CFPB Looms As Trump Admin To Join PHH Argument

Mar 07

From: PYMNTS.com

In the latest salvo in the legal wrangling between the Trump administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Justice Department has signaled that it will embrace the argument laid out by PHH Corp. that the CFPB is unconstitutional.

As noted by CFPBMonitor.com and disclosed in a court filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department signaled that it will file a “friend of the court” briefing by Mar. 17, and this action portend further legal consideration over the CFPB’s structure and reach.

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