Natasha Kohne Quoted in Corporate Counsel on Most Important Privacy and Security Decisions of 2015

Natasha Kohne, a partner at Akin Gump and co-leader of the firm’s cybersecurity, privacy and data protection practice, was quoted in the Corporate Counsel article “Five Privacy and Security Stories That Mattered in 2015,” which looks at the top cybersecurity and data privacy challenges in-house counsel faced last year and how those challenges might continue in 2016.

Kohne addressed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in FTC v. Wyndham, which held that the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to regulate cybersecurity under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans unfair and deceptive practices, were permissible. The FTC had sued Wyndham Worldwide Corp., which was hacked three times in less than two years, alleging the company misled customers about how secure it kept their data.

Wyndham’s lawyers argued the FTC did not have the authority to bring the case, but the court sided with the commission. Kohne said the ruling “reaffirmed the FTC emerging as the data security cop on the block.”