On December 19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that U.S. consumers not eat any commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples and that retailers not sell or serve them as they continue to investigate an outbreak of listeria monocytogenes which has infected at least 28 people from 10 states. The CDC has yet to identify the producer of the contaminated apples. Accordingly, the number of market players in the supply chain who will be affected by this recommendation - from farms through supermarkets - remains unknown.… Continue Reading
Since the President's February 2013 Executive Order directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to lead the development of a voluntary framework to address and reduce cyber risks, the agencies and stakeholders involved have been exploring whether to tie the February 2014 Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (the NIST Framework) to incentives such as cyberliability insurance. For example, in a Report to the President on Cybersecurity Incentives, the Treasury Department suggested that "[c]yber insurance can promote adoption of stronger security measures" because, among other reasons, "insurers could require policyholders to comply with minimum security standards as a condition of insurance coverage, including adoption of the Framework."
The Treasury Department held a public meeting on November 6 that included a discussion of developments in the market for cyberliability insurance and the NIST Framework.… Continue Reading