The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
Florida
The PSC reminds Monroe County residents that April 18th is the start of 10-digit dialing for local calling in the Keys. A new area code, 786, or SUN, has been introduced in the Keys, along with its existing 305 area code, in an overlay implementation plan approved by the PSC in July 2014. The 786 area code covers the same geographic boundaries covered by the Keys’ current 305 area code. On June 1, 2015, telephone numbers with 786 will be issued in the Keys. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 7/21/14.
New York
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced in a Press Release its findings that a significant potential cyber security vulnerabilities with banks’ third-party vendors. Third-party firms often have access to a financial institution’s information technology systems, providing a potential point of entry for hackers. The NYDFS said that “banking organizations appear to be working to address the cyber security risks posed by third-party service providers, although progress varies depending on the size and type of institution.” NYDFS conducted a survey of 40 banking organizations finding:
- Nearly 1 in 3 of the banks surveyed do not require their third-party vendors to notify them in the event of an information security breach or other cyber security breach.
- Fewer than half of the banks surveyed conduct any on-site assessments of their third-party vendors.
- Approximately 1 in 5 banks surveyed do not require third-party vendors to represent that they have established minimum information security requirements. Additionally, only one-third of the banks require those information security requirements to be extended to subcontractors of the third-party vendors.
- Nearly half of the banks do not require a warranty of the integrity of the third-party vendor’s data or products (e.g., that the data and products are free of viruses).
ENERGY
2015 IEEE PES General Meeting
POWERING UP THE NEXT GENERATION, the 2015 IEEE* Power & Energy Society (PES) General Meeting will be held July 26-30, 2015. The meeting will be in Denver, Colorado at the Sheraton Denver Downtown. There will be a number of half-day and full-day tutorials. The five half-day tutorials cover a variety of topics including Energy Storage, Transactive Energy Systems, Fault Current Contributions from Wind Plants, GHG Emission Standards for the Power and Energy Sector, and Smart Grid Data and Analytics. The seven full day tutorials encompass a wide range of topics including Smart Distribution Systems, Energy Forecasting, Renewable Energy Systems, Distribution System Modeling, Smart Substations, Cascading Phenomena, and Distribution Volt-var Control. Click here for tutorial details. [*IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]
