Linn Foster Freedman

Linn Foster Freedman

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and chair’s the firm’s Data Privacy and Security Team. She currently serves as general counsel to the Rhode Island Quality Institute. Linn focuses her practice on compliance with all state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations, as well as emergency data breach response and mitigation. She counsels clients on state and federal data privacy and security investigations and data breaches. Prior to joining the firm, Linn was a partner at Nixon Peabody, where she served as leader of the firm’s Privacy & Data Protection Group. She also served as assistant attorney general and deputy chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Rhode Island. She earned her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law and her B.A., with honors, in American Studies from Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Read her full rc.com bio here.

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Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Continue to Be Targeted by Cybercriminals

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Cybersecurity
A recent Ponemon Institute study finds that small and mid-sized businesses continue to be targeted by cybercriminals, and are struggling to direct an appropriate amount of resources to combat the attacks. The Ponemon study finds that 76 percent of the 592 companies surveyed had experienced a cyber-attack in the previous year, up from 70 percent … Continue Reading

NSA Warns of Hackers Attacking VPN Service Applications

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in New + Now
The National Security Agency issued an advisory last week to warn companies and users that nation-state actors are actively exploiting vulnerabilities in several virtual private network (VPN) service applications to obtain access to users’ devices. The hackers are leveraging vulnerabilities in older versions of VPN applications, and if successful, the attackers can then remotely execute … Continue Reading

Privacy Tip #212 – National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: “Own IT”

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Privacy Tips
Everyone should be aware that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. TechNewsWorld is urging all users to “Own IT,” which “means staying safe on social media, updating privacy settings, and keeping tabs on apps. Simply put, users need to take better ownership of their data and their online presence as part of daily safe cyber … Continue Reading

CCPA News: Amendments Signed into Law by the California Governor and Draft Regulations Released by the State’s Attorney General

By Linn Foster Freedman and Deborah George on Posted in Data Privacy, Websites
Last week was a busy week for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as Attorney General Xavier Becerra released draft regulations on October 10 and Governor Newsom signed several pending CCPA amendments into law on October 11.  The CCPA amendments clarified several important issues, including: employee information and business-to-business (B2B) communications are exempt from the … Continue Reading

FBI Warns of Sharp Increase in Ransomware Attacks in Certain Sectors

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Cybersecurity
The Federal Bureau of Investigations Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently issued a public service announcement warning private companies about the increasing numbers of ransomware attacks affecting private industry. According to the warning, “Although state and local governments have been particularly visible targets for ransomware attacks, ransomware actors have also targeted health care organizations, industrial … Continue Reading

Dental Practice Pays $10,000 Fine to OCR for Disclosing PHI on Social Media

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in HIPAA and Health Information
Elite Dental Associates (Elite), located in Dallas, Texas has agreed to settle alleged HIPAA violations with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for $10,000. The OCR alleged that it received a complaint from a patient in June of 2016 that Elite had disclosed the patient’s last name and details of the patient’s health condition on … Continue Reading

Department of Defense Subcontractors: Cybersecurity Compliance is Top Priority

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in New + Now
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment has been on a fast track mission to shore up the cybersecurity measures of defense contractors and the supply chain to the Department of Defense (DOD). It is in the process of developing a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirement for those vendors. … Continue Reading

Ransomware Attacks Double in 2019: Medical Providers Can’t Recover and Shut Down

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Cybersecurity, Health Information Privacy, HIPAA and Health Information
Consistent with our experience, security firm McAfee has confirmed in a report that ransomware attacks have doubled in 2019. Medical providers have been hit hard this year, and one provider, Wood Ranch Medical, located in California, is permanently closing following a ransomware attack. Wood Ranch was hit with a ransomware attack over the summer, and … Continue Reading

Google Sued Under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
Another day, another suit against a brand name for allegations of violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Plaintiffs’ attorneys are having a field day filing class action lawsuits based on BIPA. Late last week, Google was sued in Cook County, Illinois in a proposed class action, alleging that it violated BIPA  by … Continue Reading

Important Tool in Your Box: Spam Filter

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in New + Now
I have been hanging out a lot with Chief Information Officers (CIO) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) these days at speaking engagements and conferences, as October – National Cybersecurity month – is always busy. The topic that keeps coming up in these conversations is phishing and how most ransomware attacks are started because an … Continue Reading

Privacy Tip #210 – HHS Office of Inspector General Issues Fraud Alert for Genetic Testing Scam Targeting Seniors

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Health Information Privacy, HIPAA and Health Information, Privacy Tips
Everyone knows how I feel about those home genetic testing kits—most people don’t understand that when they send their DNA to a private company that it is not protected by HIPAA or any other law, and the company can legally use and disclose it, including selling it to other companies. Understand what companies are doing … Continue Reading

Click2Gov Portal Compromised in Eight Cities

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Cybersecurity
Many cities in the United States utilize a self-pay portal for residents to pay bills online, known as Click2Gov. Click2Gov was compromised in 2017 and 2018, when hackers were able to access over 300,000 payment cards and reportedly made more than $2 million in the heist. It is being reported this week by security researchers … Continue Reading

Vimeo Hit with Class Action for Alleged Violations of Biometric Law

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
Vimeo, Inc. was sued last week in a class action case alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by “collecting, storing and using Plaintiff’s and other similarly situated individuals’ biometric identifiers and biometric information…without informed written consent.” According to the Complaint, Vimeo “has created, collected and stored, in conjunction with its cloud-based … Continue Reading

FTC Sues Match.com Owner for Alleged Fake Love-Interest Ads

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced in a press release on September 25, 2019, that it has filed a Complaint against Match Group, Inc. (Match), the owner of Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish and other alternative dating sites, alleging that it “used fake love interest advertisements to trick hundreds of thousands of consumers into purchasing paid … Continue Reading

Survey Shows Fewer than 1/3 of Employees Receive Annual Cyber Training

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in New + Now
Despite the fact that security experts have emphasized the importance of cyber education and training as a preventive measure to protect against a devastating data breach, Chubb’s Third Annual Cyber Risk Survey finds that only 31 percent of employees in the businesses surveyed receive cyber training and education on an annual basis. According to the … Continue Reading

Almost Entire Ecuadorian Population Affected by Massive Data Breach

By Linn Foster Freedman on Posted in Cybersecurity
The Ecuadorian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Security has announced an investigation into data analytics company Novaestrat after news broke this week that the company left an Elasticsearch server open without any password protection, allowing open access to the data. According to officials, Novaestrat was not supposed to have the data in the first place. … Continue Reading
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