HB Risk Notes Archives

One Stock for the Coming Marijuana Boom, Says The Motley Fool

April 12th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: cannabis, legalization marijuana, medical marijuana, pot stocks|

"This legal pot stock could be like buying Amazon for $3.19." "Cannabis legalization is sweeping over North America – 10 states plus Washington, D.C., have all legalized recreational marijuana over the last few years, and full legalization arrived in Canada in October 2018. Legal marijuana is worth an estimated $50 billion for the U.S. today. And since experts have projected the U.S. industry to skyrocket to $80 billion by 2030, it’s time for investors to start paying attention. Because whether or not you’re planning on ingesting any THC, you can’t deny the monumental investing opportunity that a potentially $80 billion industry represents." --Grace Phillips, in an article for The Motley Fool

Million-Dollar Settlement in Employee Background Check Case, Top Class Actions Reports

April 11th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: background checks, employee background, employee privacy, fair credit reporting, FCRA|

"Job applicants have secured a $1.2 million settlement ending allegations that Maxim Healthcare did not properly inform potential employees that they would have a consumer report pulled as part of the application process. Class Members include those who applied and got a job with the healthcare services company between May 5, 2009 and Aug. 27, 2012, who were also subject to a consumer report check by Maxim. The Maxim Healthcare class action lawsuit claimed that Maxim violated federal consumer privacy protections when procuring employee background checks."

Dan Mogin: Antitrust, Pro-Privacy Moves Led Outside U.S.

March 21st, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: antitrust, Facebook, Privacy|

In a move that could redefine how 2.6 billion people use Facebook Messenger and Facebook’s acquired WhatsApp and Instagram apps, The New York Times reported on Jan. 25 that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to integrate the platforms. The announcement turned up the volume on antitrust and privacy warnings directed at the social media giant. “Facebook can be legitimately criticized for merging these apps after contrary assurances and perhaps for trying to dominate messaging,” MoginRubin Partner Dan Mogin said, “but perhaps more importantly, this is another example of the evolving convergence between antitrust and privacy that appears to be being driven by forces outside the US enforcement agencies. It’s a challenging issue for antitrust and may eventually lead to a sea change.” See the complete post on the MoginRubin Blog.

Attorney General Ferguson of Washington Sues State’s Top Opioid Distributers

March 20th, 2019|Categories: Emerging Litigation & Risk, HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: Attorney General, Lawsuit, Opioids, oxycontin, purdue pharma, Washington AG, Washington opioids|

“We are woefully under-resourced when it comes to treatment. The people who are responsible for this epidemic should being paying for it. We are going to hold these companies accountable and get more money into our communities for treatment.” --Washington AG Bob Ferguson The three largest distributors of prescription opioids in Washington State are being sued by Attorney General Bob Ferguson for fueling the state's opioid epidemic. Detailed in Ferguson's King County lawsuit are the billions of dollars made from these suspicious shipments of over 2 billion pills of unregulated oxycodone, fentanyl, hydrocodone and other opioids. "Prescriptions and sales of opioids in Washington skyrocketed more than 500 percent between 1997 and 2011. In 2011, at the peak of overall sales in Washington, more than 112 million daily doses of all prescription opioids were dispensed in the state — enough for a 16-day supply for every woman, man and child in Washington," according to the AG's announcement. "In 2014 McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen shipped enough opioids to Pend Orielle County to supply every single resident with dozens of pills. In 2009, McKesson alone supplied enough for dozens of pills for every resident of the county. The specific shipment numbers are currently under seal." The accused distributors are in the top 15 Fortune 500 list based on 2017 revenue. In addition to the [...]

AccessData to Host 2019 User Summit in Las Vegas, April 8-11

February 20th, 2019|Categories: Conferences, Conferences, Conferences, HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|

Use promotion code ADHB10 for 10% off the $825 rate. Renowned experts in fields of forensics, cybersecurity and digital investigations headline conference for forensics and legal professionals For Immediate Release February 20, 2019 | 09:35 AM Eastern Standard Time LINDON, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AccessData Group, a leading provider of integrated digital forensics and e-discovery software, announced that it will host its 2019 User Summit from April 8-11, at the luxurious Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson, Nev. “We will offer five tracks — Basic Digital Forensics, Advanced Digital Forensics, Mobile Forensics, Basic Legal and Advanced Legal — that enable attendees to create a personalized conference schedule tailored to their unique professional roles and responsibilities within their organizations.” The AccessData User Summit is the premier gathering for computer and mobile device forensics, e-discovery and litigation support professionals, all assembled at one conference. Lori Tyler, VP Global Marketing, AccessData “This year’s conference features a deeper faculty of expert speakers than ever, with some of the foremost authorities on cybersecurity, digital investigations, legal workflows and mobile forensics,” said Lori Tyler, Vice President of Global Marketing at AccessData. “We will offer five tracks — Basic Digital Forensics, Advanced Digital Forensics, Mobile Forensics, Basic Legal and Advanced Legal — that enable attendees to create a personalized conference schedule tailored to their unique professional roles and [...]

South Korea, EU Having ‘Adequacy’ Discussions

January 30th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: cybersecurity, data protection adequacy, global cyber, privacy law, south korea cyber, south korea eu|

Because of its robust network connectedness, its advanced use of mobile devices and its rich collection of intellectual property, South Korea is a leading target for hackers. Discussions are under way between the EU and South Korea to determine, as a non-EU country, whether its data protections are adequate. Also, South Korea has joined the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. Significant caselaw is developing regarding this country’s 2011 data protection statute as well as its sector-specific laws. Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz have selected Professor Haksoo Ko from the Law School at Seoul National University to speak at the International #PrivacySecurity Forum April 3-5, 2019. Ko will co-present to provide an up-to-date account of developments in South Korea and analyze the most important compliance hurdles. Learn more: http://bit.ly/IPSF-2019

Financial Institutions Struggle to Keep Up with ‘Changing Business Needs’ Such as Social Mobile Apps, and Getting Risk Data Quickly, Deloitte Report Suggests

January 27th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: Cyber Risk, cyberisk, data breach, data security, deloitte, icrmc, privacy law, risk data, Risk Management|

Deloitte's report is based on a survey of 94 financial institutions around the world that operate in a range of financial sectors and with aggregate assets of $29.1 trillion. Deloitte's Edward Hida -- financial risk community of practice global leader and a partner in Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory -- posted his executive summary the latest Global Risk Management Survey which is the organization's eleventh. The report is a detailed one and Deloitte draws quite a few conclusions around the continued focus on cyber security, engagement of boards of directors, increase attention to non-financial risks, the potential of digital risk management, enterprise risk management, the proliferation of Chief Risk Officers, an increased reliance on stress testing and more. A couple figures jumped out at me which show at least two challenges to financial institutions. Hear this Deloitte professional at ICRMC in Toronto April 15-16! Respondents are finding "extremely challenging" the need to keep up with changing business operational needs, such as deployment of social mobile applications, data analytics and cloud-based risks. Also in the "extremely challenging" category, not surprisingly, are threats from "sophisticated actors," like foreign governments and crackerjack hacktivists. Other issues categorized as "extremely high priority "revolve around getting quality risk data quickly. Given the average length of time other studies show that a hacker can poke around in your network before you [...]

Mandiant: “Dwell Time” Down in North America, but Way Up Elsewhere

January 24th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes|

Two Judges Find Florida Medical Marijuana Law Unconstitutional

January 4th, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: cannabis, Florida medical marijuana, medical marijuana|

The Program is 'Absolutely Broken' -- Now What? Edited by Tom Hagy Florida Circuit Judge Karen Gievers just held that the Florida medical marijuana law is unconstitutional. Reporting on the judge's Trulieve decision for the Florida Politics news service, journalist Jim Rosica called it "a rebuke to lawmakers and the Rick Scott Administration" that was "stunning even for" Judge Gievers. "In the spirit of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, known for his pre-fight rhymes, Gievers opined that in Florida 'the medical marijuana system was broken. Now, in the Constitution, the people have spoken.'" Rosica reported that while Gov. Scott is appealing the major marijuana decisions against the state Department of Health, the transition team of Republican Governor-elect Ron DeSantis, including Lt. Gov.-elect Jeanette Nuñez, has suggested that he will not continue to defend the law in court. Rosica continued: "Gievers, who retires in April, said her decision striking down the law 'includ(ed), but (is) not limited to, replacement of the voter-selected registry plan with an arbitrary, inconsistent licensing scheme … throttling access of qualifying patients to … safe use of medical marijuana from (providers that) the Department has a clear, undisputed duty to register.' In fact, just passing the law was itself unconstitutional, Gievers suggested: 'Voters made clear in 2016 that the Legislature was to have no role in implementing access to and availability [...]

Stigma and Shame Hampered AIDS Treatment in the 80s, and Opioid Treatment Today

January 2nd, 2019|Categories: HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: opioid class action, opioid crisis, opioid insurance|

By Tom Hagy I worked in the press office of the New Jersey Department of Health in the 1980s. Aside from hazardous waste, asbestos, cancer, a chemical fire or two, the annual influenza "crisis" and the occasional salmonella outbreak, AIDS was one of the most urgent, frightening and misunderstood health issues of the day. The U.S. epidemic began with one reported case in 1981, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and grew to an astounding 36.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2017 as reported by the World Health Organization. The office I worked in was tasked with providing information to the public and members of the press. At the time many public health professionals believed -- as is the case with many diseases -- that education on how to prevent transmission of the HIV virus would all but eliminate its spread. All we had to do was educate the public and, most importantly, the high-risk groups. Education is a common weapon in fighting disease. It's why we wash our hands, cough into our elbows and try not to put salt on absolutely everything we put in our mouths. In the early 1980s the "problem" was that the high-risk groups were having homosexual sex and injecting drugs -- not typical themes addressed by politicians. Early on more conservative policymakers didn't want [...]

Mitigating Operational Cyber Risk: As Business Technology Changes, So Does Your Risk Profile

December 6th, 2018|Categories: HB Risk Notes|

By Tom Hagy The various risks of doing business in our digitally connected world continue to evolve. So must the approach organizations take in confronting those risks, for failing to do so in the current risk landscape can be far more dangerous than in prior years. I spoke with Nick Galletto, Global Cyber Risk Leader at Deloitte, who traced the evolution of the dangers of doing business in a digitally connected world. Early on, our focus in the cyber risk management space was on how to protect websites from being defaced, he explained. Organizations had to make sure websites were functioning properly, that data was secure, and the integrity was maintained. Galletto went on to say that we’ve moved from an era of compliance and risk management to an era of complexity. From an organization’s perspective, their focus was on making sure the company was compliant with new and evolving regulations, and risk management meant having policies, procedures and effective controls in place. “While compliance is a necessity, it is not the silver bullet that’s going to protect us from any potential breaches," Galletto said. "So organizations must look at conducting their business in this connected world not merely from a compliance perspective but from a risk perspective. A clear example of this is the number of PCI-compliant companies that were still getting breached." “Now as organizations move into an era of complexity, they need to be proactive in detecting anomalies and suspicious behavior and be prepared so their teams have [...]

Aon SVP Belfiore on Corporate Cyber Risk

November 1st, 2018|Categories: HB Risk Notes|Tags: board liability cyber, Cyber Risk, d&o claims, directors and officers|

Cyber Risk of Paramount Concern to Corporate Boards Lack of History Remains a Challenge "Cyber security is the most polarizing issue on the corporate board agenda these days," says Anthony Belfiore, SVP and Chief Information Security Officer at Aon. "It has the most potential impact and the most regulatory pressure among all risks companies face. Nothing is more top of mind right now." "You just have to look at the amount of media coverage and the actual realized impacts companies are experiencing. Hundreds of thousands of businesses from big to small are being affected. The entire healthcare system in the UK went down. The impact is tangible. It’s affecting day-to-day operations," he says. “And no one is immune. Board members come from a diverse set of industries, and all are impacted." Why is cyber risk such a hot button for companies versus other types of risks? "The risk has become more urgent as it has shifted to actual business interruption," Belfiore says. "Historically companies were concerned with data leakage and loss, or regulatory fines, but now the actual operation itself can come to a halt. When a company goes down for three days that hits the media. Analysts notice. You can trace a specific event to a drop in stock values." Aren't fines still a concern? "Yes. We are operating in a [...]