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ARTICLE · 27 JUNE 2024

Impact Of Tennessee's Cybersecurity Class Action Safe Harbor

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Tennessee has joined a handful of other states to provide certain safe harbors in the cybersecurity realm. Unlike others, the law sites beside -but does not modify- the states...

United StatesTechnology
Kristi L. Thomas
Kristi L. Thomas
Tracy Chau
Tracy Chau
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Tennessee has joined a handful of other states to provide certain safe harbors in the cybersecurity realm. Unlike others, the law sites beside -but does not modify- the states' data breach notification law. Also unlike others, the safe harbor is very narrowly tailored, and is not triggered by having a data security program.

Under the new law, companies are not liable in class action suits that arise from a "cybersecurity event." The term is defined similarly to that used by the SEC when describing public entities 8K filing obligations. Namely, an event that arises from unauthorized access or misuse of either an "information system" or "non-public" information stored on that system.

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