NASCIO Perspective: The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program

The passage and signing into law of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act) provided historic levels of funding to states, territories, tribes and localities to address pressing infrastructure needs. While “traditional” infrastructure priorities that include roads and bridges were a central focus of the bill, broadband expansion and cybersecurity concerns also garnered substantial…

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NAAG Announces Formation of Center on Cyber and Technology

Washington, D.C. — The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) has established the Center on Cyber and Technology. The new Center is dedicated to developing programs and resources to support state attorneys general and their staffs in understanding technical aspects of emerging and evolving technologies, conducting cybercrime investigations and prosecutions, and ensuring secure and resilient…

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NAAG Urges TikTok and Snapchat to Give Parents More Control

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent a letter, signed by 44 attorneys general, to TikTok and Snapchat urging them to give parents the ability to monitor their children’s social media usage and protect their children from online threats using parental control apps. In their letter, the attorneys general express various concerns over the…

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Discussing Privacy Fallacies: Concluding Thoughts

Third in a Series  Talking about privacy is like trying to hug an octopus. The concept covers a wide array of practices and technologies, including targeted advertising, surveillance, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, biometrics and facial recognition, social media platforms and mobile apps, and online and geolocation tracking, to name just a few. Understanding all…

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Discussing Privacy: More Fallacies, and Why Context Matters

Part 2 in an Ongoing Series Data is the oil of the modern economy. That analogy, although it has become a cliché, seems even more apt when you dig deeper. A century ago, we were building our economy around the suddenly ubiquitous flow of oil. We didn’t assign much weight to the externalities in our…

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The State of State Cybersecurity: An Update for the Attorney General Community

The increased frequency and scale of recent ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure and private networks has raised serious concerns and questions about the cyber vulnerabilities of our nation’s public and private sector networks, particularly critical infrastructure. This on-demand course provides an update on the state of state cybersecurity, including state critical assets generally, and government…

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Privacy in the Information Age: Legislative and Policy Approaches

Last year, state attorneys general from around the country gathered in Vermont for the 2021 NAAG Eastern Region conference on The Surveillance Economy: How Attorneys General Protect Privacy, Safety, and Equality in the Information Age. During one panel, experts discussed innovative legislative and policy approaches to enhancing privacy in the digital age. State attorneys general…

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Debunking the Privacy Fallacies

This is the first in a series of articles about privacy-related issues that may be of interest to state attorneys general. When I was in law school, “privacy law” wasn’t really discussed. Today, it seems like all anyone can talk about. That might be because I work on privacy and data security matters for the…

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NAAG Supports Senate Hearings on Social Media and Mental Health

As enforcers of our jurisdictions’ consumer protection laws, we find it deeply troubling that Facebook and other social media platforms seek to increase user engagement by conscripting our nation’s youth despite known harms to children and adolescents.

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Press Invited to Attend Conference on the Surveillance Economy

WHO: The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is hosting the conference in conjunction with Vermont Attorney General and NAAG Eastern Region Chair T.J. Donovan. Attorneys general scheduled to speak include: William Tong, Connecticut Attorney General and NAAG Eastern Region Co-Vice Chair Karl A. Racine, District of Columbia Attorney General and NAAG President Maura Healey,…

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