At a glance.
- SEC considers new rules for investment advisers and funds.
- NIST's fifty years of cybersecurity.
- Google and Meta point out the benefits of ad-supported services.
Prepping for the SEC’s new rules for investment advisers.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has made cybersecurity one of his main priorities, and on February 9 the SEC released its proposed cybersecurity rules for investment advisers and funds. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance offers advice for preparing for the proposed rules. Advisers can gear up for the 48-hour breach notice requirement by being aware of which incidents qualify, determining who will make the notification, and mocking up a notification template that can easily be completed when necessary. Also suggested: ensuring cybersecurity policies and procedures are up to code, creating a proactive plan for what documentation evidence will be shared in the case of an incident, and reviewing incident response plans to ensure that the business will be minimally disrupted if a breach occurs.
NIST marks fifty years of cybersecurity.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its focus on cybersecurity, and to honor the occasion, NIST has published an impressive timeline featuring some of the agency’s contributions in the field over the past half-century. Highlights include the establishment of NIST’s (then called the National Bureau of Standards) Computer Security Program in 1972, the publication of the pocket Executive Guide to Computer Security in 1974 (when only about 130,000 computers were in use in the country), the release of the Data Encryption Standard – the first standardized encryption algorithm – in 1977, and in 1999, the introduction of the Internet - Categorization of Attacks Toolkit (ICAT), which became the standard for the current global vulnerability management ecosystem.
Google and Meta argue the benefits of ad-supported online services in Australia.
Australian lawmakers are in the process of reviewing updates to the Privacy Act 1988, the country’s primary privacy law. CPO Magazine reports that, in an attempt to prevent officials from making the Act’s data collection rules too stringent, tech giants Google and Meta have submitted information to the review underlining the benefits of ad-supported apps and cloud services. Meta’s approach was to focus on the benefits to small businesses, noting that allowing users to opt-out of marketing services would hurt ad-supported business models. The company also noted that, based on (possibly skewed) survey results, users prefer to “pay” for online services with personal data rather than cash.
Taking a different approach, Google focused on location data, saying that generalized location data like town or postcode should not be considered special protected information. Meanwhile, privacy advocates are asking for the definition of personal information to be expanded to include any data that could render a person individually identifiable. Google and Meta are among the nearly two hundred organizations that have filed public submissions to the Australian privacy law review; others include the Australian Association of National Advertisers, Telstra, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services.
EU announces new vote date for MiCA legislation.
The EU parliament’s Monetary Committee will be voting on the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation on March 14, after the vote was initially postponed due to pushback regarding language in the legislation that many felt essentially outlawed proof-of-work cryptos like bitcoin. Dr. Stefan Berger, the parliament member overseeing the MiCA vote, told CoinDesk, "An independent topic of proof-of-work is no longer provided in the MiCA." He added, "My suggestion is to include crypto assets, like all other financial products, in the taxonomy area. In view of the controversial discussions surrounding the energy consumption of crypto assets, the taxonomy could provide clarity and ensure a better information basis for consumers.”