Sidley’s 2nd Annual Privacy and Cybersecurity Roundtable Provides Cross-Industry Insights from Senior Government Officials
Senior legal, economic and privacy leadership from U.S. and European government joined Sidley partners and senior counsel as panel participants at the 2nd Annual Privacy and Cybersecurity Roundtable. An audience of more than 70 privacy professionals across financial, healthcare and technology industries heard from three panels that focused on the latest developments and prospective issues in cybersecurity, big data and EU privacy.
Panelists previewed several specific privacy and cybersecurity issues that companies and their counsel will likely face in the near future. The first cybersecurity panel focused on the need for further guidance to provide companies more assurance when monitoring and sharing under the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act . Panelists also discussed the government’s efforts to become close cyber defense allies with industry while addressing the private sector’s concerns about liability for sharing and other cyber defense activity. A Big Data panel then discussed U.S. and international considerations, focusing on the balance between regulation and innovation in the U.S. and EU. The proposed U.S.-EU Privacy Shield and the coming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were the dominant focus of the third panel, including robust discussion about the likelihood that the Privacy Shield will receive sufficient support, practical challenges companies presently face on data transfer solutions, and how EU policy debates may complicate implementation of both the Privacy Shield and the GDPR.
Members of the first panel on Cybersecurity included top-level government officials:
- Stevan Bunnell, General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security;
- Kelly Welsh, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce; and
- Michael Daniel, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator
Alongside former Deputy Attorney General of the United States and Sidley partner, Jim Cole, another Sidley partner from our DC office, Colleen Theresa Brown, and moderator, Ed McNicholas, one of the global leaders of Sidley’s privacy practice from the DC office.
Alan Raul, co-leader of Sidley’s Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice, and former Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, moderated the second panel which provided a global perspective on the legal restrictions, regulatory guidance, ethical standards and enforcement issues surrounding Big Data. Panelists were:
- Giovanni Buttarelli, European Data Protection Supervisor;
- David Edelman, Special Assistant to the President for Economic & Technology Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC); and
- Maureen Ohlhausen, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
The panelist were joined by Sidley’s Cam Kerry, former General Counsel and Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, and Sidley’s Ed McNicholas, to discuss the benefits and challenges of Big Data in business, government, research and healthcare.
The final panel covered the latest developments and privacy challenges out of the European Union and offered a prognosis for the approval, implementation and compliance of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Sidley’s Cam Kerry moderated the panel which included Giovanni Buttarelli, Kelly Welsh and Sidley partners, William Long from Sidley’s London office, and Colleen Brown from the DC office.
The panels were held in Sidley’s Washington, D.C. office on Monday, April 4, 2016.
