Hacks are no fun to deal with. It’s a headache to find that your accounts, whether it’s personal, business, or financial, are potentially compromised. But what’s worse is when you don’t find out, and it takes an outstanding amount of time before that information comes out. That’s where the SEC is stepping in, and new regulation is forcing public companies to come clear regarding these hacks they experience. This includes video game companies, so if something becomes compromised, they can’t just keep a tight lid on it.
Thanks to PC Gamer, we’re finding out that SEC has a new regulation in place that will keep companies more readily responsible for alerting hacks. This is specifically for material hacks that investors would like to know about. As a result, this new regulation will ensure that companies have exactly four days to disclose this incident to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. While aimed at public companies in general, that means any video game company that is publicly traded will fall in line with this new regulation, so you can be sure that if there are any future compromises that happen, details will emerge sooner than likely ever before.
Of course, now it might take some time to ensure what hacks will be considered material, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Not only will investors get a heads-up regarding these hacks, but more importantly, users of some of these companies will get some insight into what was hacked and the content that might have been compromised. Meanwhile, for companies that feel that reporting this hack proves a major risk to national security or public safety then, they can delay the filing.
That might not be a rule we’ll see fall into video game companies. At any rate, this new regulation rule doesn’t take effect quite yet. This regulation will be signed later this year, and afterward, you will see the rules take effect thirty days later. While security measures will always get improved to keep accounts and information secure, there will still be some groups that slip through the cracks. At least now we’ll get a quicker heads up when these hacks do end up happening for some of our favorite publicly traded companies.
