Inside the ”Alphabet Soup” of Incident Reporting Regulations
Dec 14, 2023
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Exploring the complexities of cyber incident reporting regulations with guest Drew Bagley. Discussing SEC policies on reporting breaches, weaponization of disclosure policies by adversaries, market reactions to incident reports, defining material incidents, and navigating the evolving regulatory landscape.
Navigating the alphabet soup of incident reporting regulations is a challenge for organizations worldwide.
Understanding material breaches and SEC reporting timelines is crucial for compliance with cybersecurity regulations.
Organizations must showcase cybersecurity governance structures to meet SEC transparency and accountability standards.
Deep dives
Understanding the Importance of Compliance and Regulations in Cybersecurity
Protecting against sophisticated cyber attacks requires knowing and adhering to cybersecurity compliance and regulations. Adversaries are becoming more relentless and organizations need to navigate the alphabet soup of rules, including SEC regulations. Demystifying these rules and recent changes in adversary tradecraft is crucial. Special emphasis is placed on understanding material breaches and the SEC's requirement to report these incidents within a short timeframe, sparking debates about definitions and potential impacts on compliance.
Organizations face a complex landscape of cybersecurity reporting requirements from various laws and regulations. The alphabet soup of cyber incident reporting mandates leads to inconsistencies in defining incidents, reporting timelines, and recipients. Organizations must align with differing incident definitions while ensuring timely and accurate reporting to the relevant authorities. Harmonizing these requirements and maintaining a robust incident response process are key challenges for ensuring compliance.
Impact of SEC Requirements on Public Companies
The SEC's new regulations mandate reporting material cybersecurity incidents, risk management processes, and governance for public companies. These requirements aim to promote transparency and accountability in cybersecurity practices. Organizations need to showcase their cybersecurity preparedness and governance structures to meet these standards. The evolving regulatory landscape underscores the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures, incident response planning, and aligning with industry best practices to comply with SEC guidelines.
Challenges and Considerations in Incident Materiality Determination
Determining the materiality of a cyber incident presents a subjective challenge for organizations. Materiality assessments require a comprehensive evaluation of impacts on security, business operations, and reputation. Organizations must define incident thresholds, involve key stakeholders in decision-making, and conduct tabletop exercises to ensure effective incident response and compliance with reporting requirements. Harmonizing incident definitions, refining response processes, and fostering transparency are vital for navigating the complexities of cyber incident materiality.
Navigating Exceptional Circumstances in Incident Reporting
Organizations facing significant national security or public safety risks may qualify for exceptions to the SEC's reporting requirements. The FBI, in collaboration with the Attorney General, oversees exceptional circumstance evaluations, ensuring strict criteria and timelines for exception requests. Transparency, threat intelligence, and robust incident response capabilities are essential for determining exceptional circumstances, addressing the FBI's queries, and securing approvals for delayed filings. Proactively aligning cybersecurity practices with regulatory standards is crucial for mitigating risks and ensuring timely compliance.
Organizations around the world must navigate a growing number of cyber incident reporting regulations mandated by government bodies.
In the U.S., these regulations come from agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and others. This “alphabet soup” of regulations, as Cristian puts it, can be tough for businesses to understand and follow — especially as the threat landscape evolves and compliance requirements change.
In this episode, Cristian is joined by Drew Bagley, VP and Counsel for Privacy and Policy at CrowdStrike, to dig into the details of why these myriad regulations have emerged and shed some light on common questions: When does a breach need to be reported, and why is the timeline a hot debate topic? What is a “material breach”? How are adversaries using these regulations to their advantage? And most importantly, how should businesses respond to all of this? Tune in for these answers — and more.
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