Know Your Tech
Technologies often provide solutions, if not game-changing solutions; but there is no solution that comes without its own challenges. Knowing what those potential challenges are up front is becoming increasingly critical. For both pragmatic and regulatory reasons, it is more important than ever that boards, senior executives and general counsels sufficiently understand technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and integrated “smart” components to recognize their potential risks, not just their promise.
In their article for Cybersecurity Law and Strategy, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys discuss why it is more important than ever to know your tech, including:
- Recent attacks and discovered vulnerabilities against cryptocurrencies demonstrate that blockchain technology may not be as secure and decentralized as it is often made out to be, requiring measures in mitigation up front.
- Reasonableness requirements in many state and federal laws, including forthcoming laws like California’s IoT law, can essentially incorporate the requirement to know your tech.
- Lawyers themselves have a duty of competence that can require keeping “abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.”
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