User Guide: New SEC Cyber Rules and Balancing the Risk to Trade Secrets

Overview of User Guide: New SEC Cyber Rules and Balancing the Risk to Trade Secrets

Panelists introduce the background and motivations behind the SEC's 2023 cybersecurity rules, then explain the reporting requirements and the responsibilities of management and the board. They discuss the tension between disclosure requirements and trade secret protection, and provide best practices for regulated corporations implementing the rules.

What you’ll learn in User Guide: New SEC Cyber Rules and Balancing the Risk to Trade Secrets

• Explain the SEC's 2023 cybersecurity rules and their motivations
• Identify the reporting requirements and board responsibilities
• Balance disclosure obligations against trade secret risk
• Apply best practices for compliance

Curriculum

1. 1. SEC 2023 New Cybersecurity Rules

   Background and motivations behind the new rules.

   Locked

2. 2. Key Elements of the New SEC Rule

   Reporting requirements and responsibilities of management and the board.

   Video coming soon

3. 3. Balancing the New SEC Rules with Trade Secret Concerns

   Weighing disclosure requirements against trade secret risk.

   Video coming soon

4. 4. Best Practices for Regulated Corporations

   Practical guidance for implementing the SEC's rules.

   Video coming soon

Your instructors

Daniel B. Garrie

Founder, Law & Forensics; Neutral at JAMS; Faculty at Harvard

Law & Forensics LLC · JAMS · Harvard · Rutgers Law School · Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare

Daniel B. Garrie is the founder and executive managing partner of Law & Forensics LLC, a boutique cybersecurity and forensic engineering firm he co-founded in 2008. He serves as a neutral, arbitrator, and forensic special master at JAMS, focusing on cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and complex technology disputes, and holds faculty appointments at Harvard and Rutgers Law School. A patented software inventor and prolific author, he is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare and a widely cited authority on computer forensics, eDiscovery, and cyber litigation.

Michelle Tanney

Partner, BakerHostetler

BakerHostetler

Michelle N. Tanney is a partner in BakerHostetler's New York office, practicing in commercial litigation, securities and governance litigation, white collar investigations and securities enforcement, and compliance and enterprise risk management. She represents public companies and executives in civil litigation and regulatory enforcement before the SEC, the Department of Justice and FINRA, and advises on emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, where she focuses on balancing innovation with compliant execution. Earlier in her career she was an associate at the firm representing Irving H. Picard, the SIPA trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. A 2012 graduate of Albany Law School, she was named to Attorney Intel's Top 25 Blockchain and Digital Assets Attorneys of 2025. At Legal Cyber Academy she teaches on the SEC's cyber disclosure rules and the risk they pose to trade secrets.

David Anderson

Vice President, Cyber Liability, Woodruff Sawyer

Woodruff Sawyer

As of 2026, David Anderson is Vice President, Cyber Liability at Woodruff Sawyer, which Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. acquired in April 2025. He focuses on complex cyber, privacy, technology and professional liability issues. His experience spans risk assessment, pre-breach network security risk discovery and risk management, and hands-on post-incident client support and claims advocacy, and he helps clients navigate the cyber and professional liability insurance marketplace to reach market-leading coverage terms and conditions at the best possible premium. His career began in the branches of several large banks, moved into management liability at a commercial insurance broker, and from there into cyber insurance, where he has built a practice rooted in transparency, trust and client education — as he puts it, cyber policies do not cover everything, so a broker has to help clients understand "where the four walls of coverage are and where they're not." He holds the CIPP/US certification, is a member of ISMG's CyberEdBoard, and has spoken on cyber risk at SecureWorld conferences. At Legal Cyber Academy, David Anderson teaches on the SEC cyber rules and balancing disclosure against the risk to trade secrets.

Sean McTigue

Partner, Bartko Pavia LLP

Bartko Pavia LLP

Sean R. McTigue is a partner in the litigation and intellectual property practices of Bartko Pavia LLP in San Francisco. He handles complex commercial disputes involving trade secrets, intellectual property and corporate governance, including matters where the key evidence is technical, such as source code, forensic device imaging and data-driven software systems. He helped secure an $845 million trade secret judgment in ASML US, Inc. v. Xtal, Inc. and a $222.7 million trade secret verdict in Zest Labs, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Inc. He holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and an honors bachelor's degree from the University of Utah. At Legal Cyber Academy he teaches on the SEC cyber rules and balancing disclosure against the risk to trade secrets.