Applus Technologies, Inc., a vendor of multiple state Departments of Motor Vehicles that assists states with vehicle inspections, recently announced that its systems have been affected by malware, disrupting motor vehicle inspections in Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Utah. As a result of the outage, vehicle inspections have not been able
Massachusetts
Consumer Reports Releases Model State Privacy Act – More States Introduce Consumer Privacy Legislation
This week, Consumer Reports published a Model State Privacy Act. The Consumer advocacy organization proposed model legislation “to ensure that companies are required to honor consumers’ privacy.” The model legislation is similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act, but seeks to protect consumer privacy rights “by default.” Some additional provisions of the model law…
DOJ Warns of Business Email Compromise Scheme Targeted at PPP Loan Recipients
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts is warning small businesses that received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of a dramatic increase in reports of business email-compromise schemes related to the program. Scammers are using information about PPP recipients posted by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to impersonate PPP lenders requesting…
Update on the Massachusetts Right to Repair Lawsuit
As I wrote about previously on our blog, the Massachusetts Right to Repair amendment passed in November is up against a lawsuit from auto manufacturers. Now, the Massachusetts’ Attorney General’s office has responded stating that the state law does not conflict with any federal statute and that voters already rejected all of the lawsuits allegations.…
Massachusetts Ballot Question 1 Still on the Forefront as Automakers Sue to Block its Implementation
A group of automakers through the Alliance for Automotive Innovation is suing Massachusetts in federal court to block the new ‘Right to Repair’ law that passed on November 3rd. This law was known as “Question 1” to Massachusetts residents hitting the polls earlier this month. As we discussed in our prior blog post, the…
Election Results: New Data Privacy and Security Laws
Although the Presidential race is unconfirmed at the time of this writing, there are several data privacy and security laws to put on your radar following the election this week.
Here is a brief list of laws that passed that we are aware of so far. We will provide more information as news breaks, but…
A Deeper Dive into the Privacy + Cybersecurity Concerns about Massachusetts’ Ballot Question 1
I previously wrote about a ballot question in Massachusetts this year that would update the “Right to Repair” initiative that was first passed in 2013. As a quick refresher, the Right to Repair law allows consumers to take their car to any repair shop (not just the dealer) and have their mechanic plug a cord…
Massachusetts Ballot Question Poses Privacy Concerns
Ballot Question 1 in Massachusetts, if passed in November, would require car manufacturers that sell cars equipped with telematics systems (i.e., a method of monitoring a vehicle by combining a GPS system with on-board diagnostics to record – and map – exactly where a car is and how fast it’s traveling, etc.) to install a…
On the Border Restaurant Suffers Data Breach
Last week, the Tex-Mex restaurant chain On the Border suffered a data breach that impacted its payment acceptance systems in 27 states. The restaurant says that some credit card information of customers who visited the chain between April and August 2019 may have been compromised. In a press release, On the Border representatives said, “Our…
Introducing the New York SHIELD Act
The New York “Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act” (SHIELD Act), N.Y. Gen Bus. Law§ 899-bb, requires businesses that collect private information on New York residents to implement reasonable cybersecurity safeguards to protect that information. While this is a new law in the State of New York, it is simply joining other states,…