CYBERSECURITY

DOJ’s Big Win in North Korean IT Worker Fraud Scheme

On April 15, 2026, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that two U.S. nationals, Kejia Wang and Zhenxing Wang, were sentenced for facilitating a North Korean IT worker scheme that compromised over 80 U.S. identities, with sentences of 108 and 92 months respectively, supervised release, and forfeiture orders.

The scheme involved the defendants operating “laptop farms” and using the stolen identities of over 80 legitimate U.S. citizens, with co-conspirators posting as remote workers to obtain employment at more than 100 U.S. companies. Read more

DATA PRIVACY

California’s DROP Regime will Change the Data Broker Risk Equation

California’s new Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) goes live on August 1, 2026, and the compliance stakes are enormous. State officials have warned that a single missed deletion cycle could create theoretical penalty exposure of $1.5 billion for one data broker. That number reflects how aggressively the Delete Act is designed to work. One consumer request can now cascade across every registered data broker in the state, turning deletion compliance into a centralized, high-volume, enforcement-ready system. Read more

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI’s New Privacy Filter: A Development with Limits

On April 22, 2026, OpenAI released its new Privacy Filter tool, designed to identify and mask sensitive information in text before that text is stored, shared, or used in downstream processing. OpenAI says the tool can detect items such as names, addresses, account numbers, private dates, and other personal data in documents, logs, and datasets before that material moves further through a system. Read more

Legal AI Delivers More Value When it is Tied to Business Outcomes

As corporate legal departments continue adopting AI, the conversation is shifting from experimentation to strategy. According to the Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 State of the Corporate Law Department Report, nearly half of legal departments now report department-wide AI adoption, and technology has become a top strategic priority for many general counsel.

That momentum matters, but adoption alone is not the goal. The bigger question is whether legal teams are using AI in ways that support the company’s broader business priorities. Read more

Privacy Tip #488

Account Change Phishing Alerts from “Apple” Are Tricking Users

A new, yet old, scheme has been quite successful and users should beware. If you get an account change message from Apple, be on high alert that it is fake and malicious.

According to Bleeping Computer, the scheme involves a threat actor using an Apple support email (e.g., id.apple.com) to send phishing emails to unsuspecting victims alerting them to an account change and that a new phone has been purchased. The threat actor creates an Apple ID and “inserts the phishing message into the account’s personal information fields, splitting the text across the first and last name fields.” The message looks legitimate and gives the user a telephone number to call to cancel the transaction.

Learn the importance of treating unexpected alerts with caution in this week’s Privacy Tip. Read more

RECENT EVENTS + NEWS

Linn Freedman Urges Heightened Awareness for All Critical Infrastructure

Data Privacy + Cybersecurity team and AI practice chair Linn Freedman emphasized that “[A]ll critical infrastructure should be on heightened awareness…” in the article, “Concern about cyber threat to U.S. critical infrastructure heightened,” published in The Bond Buyer on April 14, 2026. In the article, Linn said, “…that’s clearly the message that we’re getting from the federal government and so I would not ignore that.”

“State and local governments have always been more vulnerable to cyberattacks because they are limited in their funds,” Linn said. “State and local governments as well as other organizations can’t afford to ignore the threat in the current environment. You have to have the ability to put a basic program in place so that all your windows and doors aren’t open.” Read the article.

Kathryn Rattigan Joins the Beta Gamma Sigma Society as Honorary Inductee

Data Privacy + Cybersecurity team partner Kathryn M. Rattigan was invited to join the Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) Society as an honorary inductee at the Leo J. Meehan School of Business at Stonehill College. Her honorary membership reflects her exceptional leadership skills, service to the legal profession, and impact to the business community. BGS is the international business honor society for AACSB-accredited schools, which are the top 5% of business schools in the world and is comprised of individuals serving in critical leadership roles in corporate, entrepreneurial, government, non-profit, and academic sectors. In a ceremony on April 16, 2026, in Easton, Massachusetts, Kathryn provided brief remarks while accepting her invitation.