At a glance.
- Could DBR do more harm than good?
- US-TikTok negotiations could be delayed.
- Readout from CSAC’s December meeting.
Could DBR do more harm than good?
UK officials have proposed a new data regulation called the Data Reform Bill (DRB) as a domestic supplement to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The intent behind the DRB is to simplify the GDPR, which some see as overly complex. However, some experts are worried the DRB could do just the opposite. Michelle Moody, MD of Technical Consulting - Data & Analytics at consultancy Protiviti, told Computing, "Whoever's come up with the idea of doing this, they probably haven't thought about the overhead associated with the management of two regulations.” She predicts that larger corporations will stick with the GDPR, while smaller companies will adhere to the DRB, but even smaller firms with more complex data handling needs would still need to comply with the GDPR, meaning they’d be burdened with the expense of juggling two sets of regulations. Moody does acknowledge a few minor benefits to the DBR, like the fact that it would not require companies to have a local representative in the UK for data processing, but she sees such advantages as only marginal. Moody explains, "It's not a significant set of changes that are actually beneficial, and I think when you take the changes and then you look at what most organisations will need to manage in terms of double sets of regulations, processes, etc, I think it really cancels itself out.”
US-TikTok negotiations could be delayed.
The Biden administration has been working on a deal with TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based company ByteDance, to find a way for the video streaming giant to maintain its US usership while minimizing the influence of the Chinese government over TikTok’s US operation. An agreement is expected by the end of the year, but insiders have told the Wall Street Journal that these negotiations have hit some speed bumps. While both sides have agreed that TikTok’s American user data will be stored on US servers, some US officials are still concerned about the Chinese government using the platform for influence campaigns, and some Republicans are still pushing for a full ban of TikTok. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco recently stated that Chinese companies linked to the country’s intelligence community “shouldn’t be trusted to securely handle our sensitive personal data and communications,” and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said on Friday that the FBI also has its concerns. When asked for a response, a TikTok spokesperson said only that the company is looking forward to a “timely conclusion to our agreement with the U.S. government, much of which we have already started implementing in earnest, so that we can put these concerns to rest.”
Readout from CSAC’s December meeting.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) yesterday held its fifth Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) meeting, and the main topic was the group’s strategic goals for 2023. CISA Director Jen Easterly said, “I look forward to working with the Committee in the new year to ensure we are continuing to build a more cyber resilient nation to confront the challenges we face in cyber space.” Established in 2021, the committee is composed of cybersecurity experts across various professions and sectors with the goal of providing recommendations for CISA’s objectives and programs. The next meeting will be in March.
