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Sarah Aberg is special counsel in the White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations Group in the firm's New York office.

The SEC’s enforcement action with a leading seller of market data (App Annie Inc.) signals its concern with misleading data use representations. While the data at issue was not “personally identifiable” information, but instead corporate confidential information, the SEC’s concerns mirrored those that we have previously seen from that agency, as well as others, regarding representations made about personal information.
Continue Reading Implications of SEC’s Scrutiny of Data Use Representations

The SEC recently issued a risk alert warning about using vendors and cloud-based platforms. Many broker dealers and investment advisors are turning to these third parties to store customer data. In its alert, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations warns firms that relying on those third parties’ security tools is not, in and of itself, sufficient for the companies to demonstrate compliance with Regulations S-P and S-ID. These regulations require broker-dealers and investment advisers to protect customer records and detect and prevent identity theft.
Continue Reading SEC Issues Alert On Outsourcing and Data Security

For the fourth year running, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office continues to list cybersecurity as one of the top enforcement priorities for 2019. As it relates to cybersecurity, the SEC will be focusing on ensuring companies have proper configuration of network storage devices, robust information security governance, and established policies and procedures specific to protecting retail investors’ trading information and preventing cyber intrusions into retail brokerage accounts. The SEC also wants to see that companies manage both their own systems (including legacy systems), as well as maintaining adequate oversight of the practices of their partners and affiliates.
Continue Reading SEC To Focus on Cybersecurity in 2019

As we wrote yesterday, the CIO of Equifax is currently facing civil and criminal liability following trading he made after his employer suffered a major cybersecurity breach. As we indicated in our prior blog post, the SEC has filed a complaint alleging liability because he independently figured out that his employer was the victim of a breach and traded on that information.
Continue Reading You Might Be an Inside Trader If: Insider Trading and Data Breaches Part II

Earlier this year, the SEC released cybersecurity guidance addressing, among other things, the risk of insider trading in the event of a data breach.  The insider trading risk includes risk that the intruder will trade on stolen information and risk that insiders will trade on the knowledge of the breach itself.  In this manner, the SEC has added itself to the ever-growing pool of potential regulatory enforcers who may be quick to act in the event of a data breach.

Continue Reading You Might Be an Inside Trader If…: Insider Trading and Breaches Part I