NAAG Launches Center on Cyber and Technology: A Potential Roadmap for AGs and Companies Alike | Troutman Pepper

CyTech creation. On May 9, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) announced the making NAAG Center on Cyber ​​and Technology (CyTech), the participation of several other centers that focus on important issues for state and public attorneys, including tobacco and public health, ethics and public integrity, and the protection of consumer.

Purpose: Programming and Resources. The center’s purpose is to develop programs and resources to support state attorneys in “understanding the technical aspects of evolving and changing technologies, conducting cybercrime investigations and prosecutions. , and ensuring safe and robust public and private sector networks and infrastructure. ” Specifically, the center:

• Serve as an information clearinghouse for state attorneys general on trending issues;
• Create a practice -based community to share information;
• Develop strategic partnerships with other government agencies, academia, nonprofits, and the private sector;
• Conduct a “tech boot camp” and “introductory/101” trainings on technology topics; and
• Create funding channels for attorney general staff to attend important industry conferences and seek appropriate accreditations.

Contacts and Communities. The center will also create and update contact lists for state general attorney’s offices that need connections or assistance on the subject, provide tools and support for technology-related investigations, and create working groups with the attorney general’s staff on important issues. To support these activities, NAAG has launched a Cyber ​​and Technology Hub for attorney general staff providing information, updates, and materials related to cybercrime, cybersecurity, and new technologies.

Conferences and Panels. The center has attended several recent NAAG conferences and panels related to cybersecurity, cybercrime, face recognition technology, use of algorithms in business decision making, and other new technologies, including a December 2021 conference on “The Surveillance Economy: How Attorneys General Protect Privacy, Safety, and Equality of Information Age.”

AG’s Increased Focus on Privacy, Security, and Emerging Technologies. as we have mentioned before, the state attorney general examines new technologies as a leading implementer of data privacy, the right-to-repair movement, hybrid transactions, and machine learning. NAAG concludes that technological advances risk exceeding the ability of regulators to understand and accurately combat their impact on society, and the center demonstrates the need for a holistic and sustainable approach to responding. these complex issues by a technically qualified attorney general community.

Background on CyTech Director. NAAG Center on Cyber ​​and Technology Director Faisal Sheikh joined NAAG in 2019 as program counsel for the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (NAGTRI) – the programming and training arm for NAAG. Prior to joining NAAG, Sheikh worked as director of network development at the American Constitutional Society and as associate director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as assistant attorney general in the New York attorney general’s office.

Company Takeaways. While CyTech is designed as an educational, resource, and community tool for attorneys in general, companies must take the following steps provided in the advent of CyTech:

1. Topics Focused on AG. Companies can pay attention to CyTech’s list of topics to gain an understanding of what attorneys general and their staff have learned and discussed to better anticipate potential areas of investigation.
2. Developing Policies, Procedures, and Training in Focus Areas. Companies can use publicly available training and resources designed for attorney general under CyTech to develop new policies, procedures, and training or enhance existing ones on key topics of interest. at CyTech, if not pursued by the state attorney general, including:

a. Cyber ​​key vulnerabilities and best practices;

b. Trends in malware, ransomware, and other cyberattacks;

c. AdTech and information sharing;

d. Ethical advertising online;

e. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and discrimination and discrimination in databases and applications; and

f. Use and transfers of data (including under possible Privacy Shield 2.0).