Federal Trade Commission Publishes Final Updated Safeguards Rule

On October 27, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") announced significant updates to the Safeguards Rule. The FTC asked for comments on the Rule in 2019, and held a public workshop on the Rule in 2020. The Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on December 9, 2021. The Rule is effective on January 10, 2022, however, most of the substantive provisions of the Rule take effect a year from the publication date.

Per the final rule summary, the amended Rule contains five primary changes:

• "First, it adds provisions designed to provide covered financial institutions with more guidance on how to develop and implement specific aspects of an overall information security program, such as access controls, authentication, and encryption.