Welcome to the CyberCrunch Newsletter for May 2021! Last month, the CyberCrunch team celebrated Earth Month by holding an open house event at our Aston facility. Learn all about it in this edition of the newsletter.

Also, a number of states have recently introduced new data privacy and data breach notification laws. We’ll explain what you need to know about those new regulations.

CyberCrunch Celebrates Earth Day 2021

On Tuesday, April 27, we held our annual Earth Day Data Destruction Event at our Aston, PA facility. Dozens of members of the community gathered to get a glimpse inside our facility — and to see our new Cyber 10G Mobile Pulverizer in action.

If you missed the day’s festivities, head over to our blog to see pictures from the event. We will be holding a similar event at our Greensburg, Pa facility this summer, so stay tuned for the date and time.

If you’re interested in learning more about our Cyber 10G machine, contact us to request a quote today.

New Data Privacy Law in Virginia Reflects Growing Trend

Earlier this year, Virginia joined states like California and Nevada in passing a consumer data privacy law, known as the Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA). This law gives consumers the right to request information about the data stored by big companies and data brokers and to be notified about data privacy practices.

The Virginia law has some key differences from the California one. It only applies to companies that process the information of 100,000 or more Virginians in a given year, rather than 50,000 in the California version. Additionally, only the state Attorney General can bring action against companies under the new law. However, it does include a provision requiring formal “data protection assessments”, which are not required under the California privacy law.

The Virginia CDPA reflects a growing interest at the state and federal level in protecting consumers’ personal information. According to IAPP, 26 bills addressing consumer privacy have been introduced in state legislatures during 2021. So businesses of all sizes, and especially those who do business in multiple states, should continue to monitor this trend. You can prepare now by making a plan to handle personal information securely and disposing of it properly when no longer needed.

Data Breach Notification Laws Remain Strong

While state legislatures argue over how exactly to regulate the use of personal information, one thing that all states have agreed upon is that the unauthorized disclosure of personal information is a bad thing. All 50 states have some kind of data breach notification law — though each one varies in reporting requirements, thresholds, and enforcement. Additionally, federal regulations for specific industries add their own data breach reporting requirements.

If you do business in more than one state, you can protect your business by understanding the regulations that apply to you, such as:

• What constitutes a reportable data breach?
• Who does it need to be reported to?
• What is the timeframe for reporting?
• Are there any thresholds that add additional reporting requirements?
• What are the penalties for noncompliance?

You can further protect yourself by using secure and compliant electronic recycling and data destruction services, such as those provided by CyberCrunch. Our nationwide service is NAID certified and designed to help you remain compliant with all types of data privacy and protection regulations. Contact us today to get your free quote.