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3 Tips for CCPA Enforcement During COVID-19

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As we move into the second half of 2020 and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is officially enforced, we are also in the midst of a global crisis that was not properly on the radar when the regulation was enacted in January. Organizations are now being tasked with CCPA compliance in an unexpected remote work environment, with more personal data available online than ever before. And some organizations have the added privacy challenge of contact tracing practices or applications being used internally to monitor employee health.

Even in the remote work environment, relevant companies must ensure that they are informing customers and staff about what data they are collecting, options for which personal details are being gathered, the right to say no and opt out of data collection, the right to request deletion of their information, and equal pricing despite their privacy selections.

Many businesses are still struggling to implement these guidelines and are attempting to avoid significant penalties, all while meeting uptime demands. Below are some tips from security and technology industry experts for the best ways to implement CCPA compliance:

Rely on Data Privacy Regulation Experts 

There is increasing uncertainty around many businesses’ futures, and therefore, it is critical to turn to data privacy regulation experts for advice, guidance and technological support. 

“With exponential amounts of enterprise data only increasing, ensuring data privacy involves layered, complex challenges for any business. From a cloud hosting perspective, meeting evolving compliance and privacy regulations, such as the CCPA law which is just beginning to be enforced, is one of those layers. One of the most important steps organizations can take to guarantee they are on the right path towards compliance is to rely on hosting providers that have teams experienced with privacy law regulations,” said Lex Boost, CEO of Leaseweb USA.  

While it may be tempting to rely on internal teams during the economic downturn, employee burnout in already resource-strapped IT and security teams could cost the companies more in talent loss and potential breaches/fines. Thus, companies should evaluate external providers.

Boost also said, “These providers can guide the process needed to guarantee data is managed within current and upcoming privacy regulations, allowing organizations to focus on maximizing data usage and the experience for their customers.”

Have the Right Cybersecurity Measures in Place 

Proper cybersecurity measures are often major components for achieving compliance with a variety of regulations, but especially the CCPA, which is focused on protecting sensitive data and users’ privacy rights. With major hacks making recent headlines at companies like Twitter, and ransomware attacks that threaten to exfiltrate and leak private data on the rise, companies should be on high alert.

“Nobody is safe from an attack leaking personal information, and it’s absolutely essential that correct cyber measures are in place to secure privileged accounts, in particular, as thoroughly as possible. With more information online and spread out than ever before, hackers not only have the ability to scam people, but also undoubtedly have access to private messages, security information, and other personal data,” said Torsten George, cybersecurity evangelist at Centrify.  

On top of increasing breach risks, many companies’ distributed workforces are making security preparedness even more complex. But there are solutions, according to George: “To protect organizations during this transitional remote working phase and the implementation of CCPA, it’s imperative to provide your IT administration teams, outsourced IT, and third-party vendors with secure, granular access to critical infrastructure resources regardless of location and without the hassles of a virtual private network (VPN). Privileged access management solutions can both maintain compliance and enable secure remote access to on-premises and cloud-based infrastructures, securing all administrative access with risk-aware, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and maintaining the level of compliance CCPA requires.”

Look Toward the Future 

The CCPA currently protects Californian’s privacy rights, but many legal and security experts think this could inspire a similar regulation at the federal level if it is successful.

“The CCPA is the first law of its kind in the United States, and it could set a precedent for other states. And because it applies to most companies who do business with individuals residing in California, the sweeping new law promises to have a major impact on the privacy landscape not only in California, but the entire country. The passage of a cohesive U.S. federal privacy law, one that will preempt state laws, is gaining momentum. It has strong bipartisan congressional support, and several large companies from a variety of industry sectors have come out in favor of it, some even releasing their own proposals. There are draft bills in circulation,” said Wendy Foote, senior contracts manager at WhiteHat Security.

Foote also advised, “With a new class of representatives sworn into Congress in 2019 and the CCPA effectively putting a deadline on the debate and officially being enforced in July, there may finally be a national resolution to the U.S. consumer data privacy problem. However, the likelihood of it passing in the very near future is slim. A single privacy framework must include flexibility and scalability to accommodate differences in size, complexity, and data needs of companies that will be subject to the law.”

It will take several months of negotiation for lawmakers to agree upon how the federal law would be implemented. While companies wait for the passage of a national privacy law and for it to take effect, they must continue to monitor developments in both state and federal privacy law and adapt as necessary.

Consumer privacy will continue to evolve, particularly in the time of COVID-19. Because of this, newer laws and regulations, like the European Union’s GDPR and the CCPA, must be flexible and evolve over time too.

Planning and Risk Assessment for Returning to Work From COVID-19 Closures

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As businesses reopen and begin having their employees return to work, navigating the impacts of COVID-19 will undoubtedly be a challenge. Not only does keeping employees and customers safe take on new meaning, but sorting through rapidly changing guidelines can be overwhelming at best.

Adding to the complexity of returning to work after coronavirus-related closures, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and various jurisdictional health departments are all providing guidance. To best keep employees safe and make sure businesses are heading down the right path of compliance in this new era, employers should focus on planning and structure reopening into four phases: 1. identify organizational responsibilities, 2. assess risk, 3. identify the controls needed to return safely, and 4. implement.

1. Identify Organizational Responsibilities

OSHA’s Infection Disease Preparedness and Response Plan (IDPRP) has presented a helpful approach for a range of organizations across the country. The plan helps emphasize and communicate basic infection prevention measures and establishes policies and practices to reduce the risk of disease transmission in the workplace. It also helps employers develop procedures for prompt identification and isolation of potentially infectious individuals, along with implementing safe work practices and workplace controls, such as engineering and administrative controls.

To start, identify the people within the organization who will lead the return-to-work effort. This team will provide daily updates on plan implementation, review company sick leave policies and procure and distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

During this phase, review your organization’s policies and procedures to ensure they are not creating obstacles for social distancing or staying at home when sick. Sick leave, quarantine policies and pay continuation should all be modified as necessary.

2. Assess Employee Risk Exposure to COVID-19

With a team in place, it’s time to dig deep into individual roles within the organization to understand the risks associated with various work sites and job tasks. The IDPRP helps organizations identify and quantify risks associated with infectious disease and helps to evaluate an employee’s exposure to COVID-19.

When evaluating the individual roles, identify the position, task and potential exposure based on criteria laid out in four exposure levels:

  • Low risk: Jobs that do not require contact with people known to be or suspected of being infected with COVID 19. Workers in this category have minimal occupational contact with the public and other coworkers. Office workers and telecommuters are examples of low-risk roles.
  • Medium risk: Jobs that require frequent or close contact with people who may be infected, but who are not known to have or suspected of having COVID-19. Higher-volume retail workers, restaurant servers and teachers are examples of medium-risk roles.
  • High risk: Jobs with a high potential for exposure to people known or suspected to be infected with COVID-19. Healthcare support personnel, janitorial personnel in healthcare and medical transport personnel are examples of high-risk roles.
  • Very high risk: Jobs with a very high potential for exposure to people or samples with known or suspected COVID-19 infection during specific medical, postmortem or laboratory procedures. Laboratory workers testing for COVID-19, pulmonary therapists and morticians performing autopsies are examples of very high-risk roles.
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3. Identify the Controls Needed to Return Safely

After completing a risk assessment for each role, identify specific PPE and administrative and engineering controls to reduce employee exposures. Clerical work, for example, is considered low risk and controls include social distancing and awareness training. A task such as stocking shelves where an employee has moderate exposure to others is considered a medium risk and nitrile gloves, cotton masks and other PPE are recommended. For tasks with high or very high exposure such as healthcare delivery staff, controls include nitrile gloves, facemasks, N-95 or better respirator, protective gown, booties, and head cover.

4. Put the Plan in Action

There are many organizational actions that can be implemented to further prepare to support and enforce the mitigation controls in place. Engineering controls to consider include installing high-efficiency air filters in HVAC systems, increasing a facilities dilution ventilation rate or installing physical barriers to control exposure. Post signs detailing cleaning and disinfecting procedures and social distancing requirements.

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Activate temperature stations and enforce an elevator policy.

For a successful return to work, it is essential to communicate and train employees regarding protections in the workplace. A communication plan should be identified during the organizational return-to-work planning phase, along with employee, supervisor and manager training. The workforce must be well-versed in recognizing symptoms, and everyone should know how to report possible exposure and what mitigation controls specific roles should be using. Your workers compensation carrier should be able to walk you through this process and help get you back to work. Tools and resources are also available on the OSHA and CDC websites.

Organizations that had clear pandemic response plans in place ahead of COVID-19 have had better access to PPE, quicker response times to daily changes in recommended controls, and more consistent ability to address employee concerns. If an employer does not currently have a response plan in place, however, it is never too late to get started. Preparing to return to work is a perfect time to establish the framework to make sure a business is not only ready to work during COVID-19, but also ready for unforeseen disasters in the future.

Spending Risks Shift as the Pandemic Continues

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When Twitter offered permanent work-from-home status to all of its 4,600 employees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did so with a $1,000 stipend per employee to furnish and set up functional home office spaces.

For many organizations, such a sweeping move would carry higher risk as more employees, especially those not trained in company spending policy, would be expensing items. During COVID-19, enterprises of all sizes contend with the changing financial implications of adjusting business practices.

Data scientists at Oversight—a global leader in spending management technology—saw out-of-pocket spending increase 17% from April to May and expected this number to rise further in June as more employees without a corporate card make COVID-related expenses. These findings are published in the company’s Spend Insights Report, which analyzed information derived from customer interviews, market observations and Oversight data.  

Several Oversight clients reported finding big-screen TVs and soundbars on expense reports for work-from-home setups. Any of these could ultimately be for personal use or resold for personal gain. One client found that one of its employees spent $7,000 in corporate funds to set up a new home office space.

The months since COVID-19 forced employers everywhere to pivot their office strategies and open expensing capabilities to a broader subset of the employee base. As a result, the fundamental assumptions about spending and risk management in finance operations no longer apply.

New patterns of risk are emerging from these new transactions. However, finance operations teams that take the time to analyze these patterns can develop best practices.

Five key lessons enterprises should understand about spending risk in the 2020 business environment are:

1. Good and Bad Spending Have Reversed Roles

When the rapid shutdown of normal business operations forced the global workforce to shelter in place, travel discontinued abruptly. Airline and transportation activity plummeted in both March and April, as did hotel spending. But purchasing activity was higher than expected in the high-risk categories of mail/phone orders and miscellaneous stores (including merchants such as Amazon, Best Buy and Apple), while out-of-pocket expenditures in the name of business continuity increased dramatically. The result was a business scenario in which much of the historically “good” spending, like travel expenses, was suddenly deemed wasteful to the organization. In contrast, much of the traditionally categorized “bad spending” was now necessary.

2. The Pattern of Risk is Shifting, As is Mitigation Collaboration

Because the risk looks significantly different than it did before the pandemic, finance operations teams are applying more scrutiny to employee spending, and collaborating more. Operations teams are engaging more than ever with counterparts in forecasting, tax and audit to navigate the nuances of risk during the crisis, creating a new best practice that makes identifying and mitigating spending risk easier.

3. Rising Miscellaneous and Out-of-Pocket Costs Cause Payment Platform Risk

Third-party payments increased 40% year-over-year in April according to the Spend Insights Report, as the pandemic drove a significant increase in online shopping activity. That shift to online—as reflected in rising miscellaneous and out-of-pocket spending—was often processed using third-party payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe. When employees spend using these platforms, organizations are exposed to greater risk due to limited visibility into transaction and vendor data.

4. New People Spending is New Risk

Regardless of COVID-19’s impact on an organization, one good rule is that risk is a function of people. According to Oversight data, 70% of employees are good stewards of corporate funds. An additional 25% may make errors or act out-of-policy in certain circumstances, but these individuals are not intentionally involved in waste or fraud. The remaining 5% of employees could use opportunities like COVID-19 to spend maliciously or otherwise act outside of corporate compliance guidelines. Every organization’s goal should be to engender visibility into the 5% of bad actors, while simultaneously seeking to better inform the remaining 25% about the steps they can take to adhere to policy. 

5. Align your Teams and Tools to Ensure Visibility into Spending

By quickly understanding as an organization what employees are spending on today, and at what frequency, leaders will be better suited to manage and mitigate risk. While the profile may be different than before the pandemic, the same tools that guided visibility into spending and risk are available to help organizations understand and analyze spend in the new business climate.

The situation at most organizations is fluid. The essential take-away is to develop a framework and process for near-real-time awareness of employee spending and the associated risks. By recalibrating your sense of the necessary expenditures now, organizations can ultimately ensure continuous control over risks as they emerge.

Driver Safety Tips for Fourth of July Trips and Post-COVID Return to Work Commutes

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Historically, the Fourth of July holiday weekend has presented some of the most dangerous days for drivers in the United States. Indeed, it may be the country’s riskiest holiday of the year. This year, while many may be cancelling their holiday plans and staying home, others may be taking to the roads after months of little travel amid COVID-19 lockdowns.

Looking beyond the long weekend, many drivers are also getting back on the roads as businesses across the country return to work after COVID-19 closures and quarantines, either resuming their old commutes or driving for work.

“Stay-at-home orders resulted in less vehicle traffic but, incidentally, speeding and reckless driving increased dramatically as drivers took advantage of the empty streets,” said Kevin Quinn, vice president of claims and customer experience at Mercury Insurance. “This dangerous behavior puts lives at risk and can result in unnecessary collisions and fatalities. It’s especially dangerous as cities, counties and states reopen and more drivers begin returning to the roads. Drivers need to check themselves and be aware and respectful of the increasing number of vehicles surrounding them.”

He added, “Many drivers are also out of practice—aside from maybe some trips to the grocery store, their longer commute driving skills may be a bit rusty. It’s important to review the rules of the road before setting out on your trip to ensure your safety and that of others.”

As you and your employees get back behind the wheel, Quinn offered these 10 tips to help everyone stay safe over the long weekend and during the return-to-work period for businesses nationwide:

  1. Get reacquainted with your vehicle and driver settings. If your vehicle stayed in park for the majority of stay-at-home orders, it may require some maintenance. Check the oil level and tire pressure to ensure they haven’t decreased before driving. Make sure your seat and mirrors are still positioned optimally for an unobstructed view of the road ahead and remove as many blind spots as possible.
  2. Have a collision avoidance plan. Plan ahead for potential driving emergencies—such as a dog running into the street, another vehicle running a stop sign or a sudden obstruction on the highway—and create a strategy for how to react. Having a collision avoidance plan helps to make you a safer driver and protects motorists around you.
  3. Plan travel time accordingly. If you need to be at the office or an appointment by a specific time, be sure to allow yourself enough time to arrive at your destination without rushing. Account for potential delays like traffic congestion and don’t wait until the last minute to leave your home. Speeding and weaving in and out of traffic lanes to get where you need to be is dangerous and inconsiderate of other drivers.
  4. Remove distractions. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, most crashes are the result of distracted drivers. Distractions such as using or manipulating your phone, noisy or overly active passengers, eating and multi-tasking will all result in unsafe driving conditions. Reduce or remove these types of distractions while on the road so you can focus on keeping yourself and your passengers safe while driving.
  5. Be aware of other drivers. Driving safety isn’t just about your behavior, but also depends on those around you. Don’t assume they’re being attentive—they may be distracted and not see the stop sign or traffic light ahead of them. Use caution when entering intersections, changing lanes, turning and entering and exiting parking spots.
  6. Remain cognizant of speed. Speed limits are set for a reason, so don’t break them. Driving under the speed limit can be dangerous for others on the road. If your car won’t accelerate to the posted limit, turn on your flashers and safely make your way to the side of the road for service.
  7. Maintain proper following distance. Rear-ending makes up a substantial portion of total injuries sustained in collisions. Following too closely behind a car hinders your ability to come to a full stop on time and it also limits your sight-lines. The rule of thumb is putting at least three seconds of space in between your vehicle and the car in front of you. Use a fixed object—such as a pole or overpass—and count the seconds between when the car in front of you passes it and when you pass it to determine the appropriate following distance.
  8. Stay actively engaged in the task of driving. Most modern vehicles are equipped with advanced driver assistance systems—like lane departure warning and active emergency braking technology—to help drivers avoid collisions, but this technology isn’t a substitute for proper and safe driving practices. Keep your eyes focused on the road ahead, and check mirrors, over your shoulder and use your signal when turning or changing lanes.
  9. Remember to yield to pedestrians. Walkers and joggers may have grown accustomed to fewer cars on the streets, thus, may forget to look both ways before crossing.

    They also might not be paying the utmost attention to their surroundings, particularly if they’re looking at their phones, but pedestrians do have the right of way, even if jaywalking.
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    Use caution when driving on roads with high foot traffic.
  10. Obey posted traffic signs. Many cities have been repairing roads during the stay-at-home period, when fewer people were driving. Keep an eye out for any temporary traffic signs surrounding transit construction.