Israeli State Attorney issues prosecution and sentencing guidelines for computer intrusion offenses

In late August, the Israeli State Attorney, Mr. Shai Nitzan, issued guidelines (number 2.38) outlining the policy on prosecution, case management and sentencing considerations, regarding the offense of unlawful intrusion to computer material (section 4 of the Computers Law, 5755-1995).

The guidelines establish a hierarchical severity of acts that constitute intrusion to computer material. The guidelines explains that severe punishment ...

French Privacy Regulator Issues Two Warnings to Marketing Companies

The French data privacy regulator (CNIL) served formal warnings on two advertising companies - FIDZUP and TEEMO - in relation to their collection and processing of personal data from mobile phones. The companies offer software development kit (SDK) tools for using the information collected in targeted marketing campaigns. The CNIL found that the consent upon which the companies relied on ...

Brazil Enacts General Data Privacy Law Mirroring the GDPR

The Brazilian President has signed into law a new General Data Privacy Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais) similar to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The law has broad applicability as it applies to any processing of personal data provided that: (1) the processing operation is carried out in the national territory (i.e. Brazil); (2) the ...

New Ohio State Law Immunizes Organizations that Comply with Cyber-Security Standards

A new and first-of-a-kind law was enacted in the State of Ohio, providing a safe harbor to organizations that demonstrate compliance with cybersecurity standards. The law establishes a legal safe harbor operating as a defense to causes of action in tort that allege or relate to the failure to implement reasonable information security controls, resulting in a data breach. The ...

An Orwellian Nightmare? The Proposed Cyber Law

Imagine that at any given moment, the State can enter your business, demand any document and information you have, instruct you on how to operate your IT system, seize computers,  communication systems and drives containing data, or even help itself to your workstations and operate them by itself. Imagine that your most guarded information – your bookkeeping system, Excel files ...

Israeli Privacy Regulator Announces Oversight Initiative

The Israeli Privacy Protection Authority (the Israeli privacy regulator) has announced a new enforcement unit focused on “broad supervision”. The new unit was recently launched within the criminal and administrative enforcement branches of the Privacy Protection Authority. The new unit is entrusted with conducting broad sectoral and subject-based investigations in order to examine compliance with the Israeli privacy law and ...

The National Cyber Directorate against the GDPR?

The memorandum of proposed Israeli Cyber Defense and National Cyber Directorate Law, 2018, published in June, proscribes, among other things, the disclosure of “information provided to the organization concerning a cyber-attack and the measures taken by the organization, unless permitted by a qualified employee of the Directorate, under the conditions he may prescribe and subject to any law”. The Memorandum ...

Google faces record breaking fine by EU regulators

The European Commission has fined Google with an unprecedented penalty of 4.3 billion Euros (about 5 billion dollars) for breaching EU antitrust rules. The European Commission determined that since 2011, Google has been imposing unlawful restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to establish the dominant position of its search engine. In particular, the EU Commission alleges that, ...