Tag Archives: Charu Chandrasekar

SEC Cybersecurity Update: Chair Gensler Offers Insight into Upcoming Regulation

by Avi Gesser, Charu Chandrasekhar, Christopher Ford, HJ Brehmer, and Matthew Rametta

On January 24, 2022, SEC Chair Gary Gensler gave a speech on cybersecurity rulemaking to the Annual Securities Regulation Institute, outlining a number of key points he expects the SEC will consider in 2022 and emphasizing the SEC’s “key role” on the federal government’s “Team Cyber.”  A number of these proposed changes – including broadening the scope of existing SEC regulations, enhancing SEC requirements for cyber hygiene, and increasing attention to public company disclosures – were among the trends that members of the Debevoise Data Strategy & Security and White Collar & Regulatory Defense practice groups discussed during a November 2021 webcast on the SEC’s Cybersecurity Year in Review, as well as in our prior Data Blog posts (here and here).

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Recent SEC Enforcement Action Against App Annie Signals Continuing Focus on Data-related Disclosure and Policy Violations

by Avi Gesser, Charu Chandrasekhar, Eric Silverberg, Mengyi Xu, and Adrian Gonzalez

As part of our ongoing series on enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in data- and cybersecurity-related matters (here, here, and here), we have been closely tracking regulatory developments and gathering insights on enforcement trends.  Last week, the SEC announced that App Annie and its former CEO and Chairman, Bertrand Schmitt, (“App Annie”) had agreed to a $10.3 million payment to settle charges for engaging in fraudulent practices and making material misrepresentations about its data use from 2014 to 2018 (the “Relevant Period”) in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder (“SEC Order”). Although not explicitly articulated in the SEC Order, the SEC’s basis for jurisdiction was ostensibly the fact that the app aggregated public company data.  This is the SEC’s first enforcement action against an alternative data provider.  As was the case in the BlueCrest settlement late last year, the App Annie enforcement action underscores the importance of making accurate disclosures regarding data collection and use, and the regulatory risk for companies that do not follow their data policies and procedures.

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Likely Policy Priorities of the Gensler SEC

by Kara Brockmeyer, Andrew Ceresney, Arian June, Robert Kaplan, Julie Riewe, Jeff Robins, Jonathan Tuttle, Charu Chandrasekar, and Amy Aixi Zhang

Gary Gensler was confirmed on April 14 in a 53-45 vote as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

Before his confirmation, Chair Gensler testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (“Banking Committee”) on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Several key themes emerged in Chair Gensler’s testimony that signaled some of his likely policy priorities and directions for future initiatives at the agency.

Chair Gensler’s opening statement[1] and responses to questions provided perspective on three major policy themes: (1) the SEC’s potential role in using its disclosure, examination and enforcement authority to advance environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) and political spending priorities of the Democratic Party and Biden Administration; (2) market structure reforms, particularly in the equity markets in the wake of the WallStreetBets-related market volatility (though market structure reform more broadly will be a priority); and (3) digital asset and financial technology, and in particular, the regulation of cryptocurrency and new technologies.

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