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Online Access to Corporate Information
How does a company authenticate customers, employees, and third-party service providers when they seek Internet access to the company's computer networks and systems? For most companies, the standard approach is to use a user ID and password. But that approach may no longer be legally adequate. In the United States, regulators in the financial sector have now become the first to formally state that reliance solely on a user ID and password ' so-called single-factor authentication ' is now considered 'to be inadequate' at least in the case of high-risk transactions.
This new view of online authentication came in an Oct. 12, 2005 document issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Counsel ('FFIEC') titled 'Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment' ('FFIEC Guidance') (available at www.ffiec.gov/pdf/authentica tion_guidance.pdf). The FFIEC is a group of U.S. federal regulatory agencies, which include the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. While the FFIEC Guidance technically applies only to the financial sector, it is clearly in line with the developing law of security, and thus may well become legal best practice for all companies, especially where access to personal information is involved. (See, e.g., Thomas J. Smedinghoff, 'Defining the U.S. Legal Standard for Information Security,' World Internet Law Report, April 2005.)
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The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
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Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.