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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

NYDFS announces cybersecurity fraud alert

State Issues NYDFS Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security State Regulators Data Breach 23 NYCRR Part 500 Bank Regulatory

State Issues

On February 16, NYDFS issued a cybersecurity fraud alert to regulated entities describing a “widespread cybercrime campaign” designed to steal nonpublic private consumer information (NPI) from public-facing websites and use the stolen NPI to fraudulently apply for pandemic and unemployment benefits. NYDFS states that it has received reports from several regulated entities of “successful or attempted data theft” from websites providing instant rate quotes such as auto insurance rates, noting that even if NPI is redacted, “hackers have shown that they are adept at stealing the full unredacted NPI.” NYDFS advises regulated entities to review security controls for public-facing websites that display or transmit NPI (even redacted NPI), and reminds entities of their obligations under the state’s cybersecurity regulation to promptly report the theft of consumers’ NPI. (See InfoBytes coverage on NYDFS’ cybersecurity regulation here.) The cybersecurity fraud alert furthers NYDFS’ commitment to improving cybersecurity protections for both consumers and the industry, and follows an enforcement action taken last year alleging cybersecurity regulation violations (see InfoBytes coverage of NYDYS’ complaint against a title insurer for allegedly failing to safeguard mortgage documents here), as well as the regulator’s recently issued cybersecurity insurance framework (covered by InfoBytes here).