Erick Simpson’s MSP Newsletter | July 2020

How Long Before Your IT or MSP Practice is Regulated?

On June 9th, the State of Louisiana completed its legislative action and passed Senate Bill 273; which goes into effect on February 1, 2021, and requires any MSPs and MSSPs doing business in the state with any public body to register with the Secretary of State, and renew this registration every 2 years.

The new law defines Managed Service Providers and Managed Security Service Providers and provides that public bodies cannot enter into a contract with a Managed Service Provider or Managed Security Service Provider that is not registered, failed to renew, or is not in good standing with their registration.

It also requires Managed Service Providers or Managed Security Service Providers to provide notification of any cyber incident impacting a public body within 24 hours of discovery and the payment of any ransom involved within 10 days of payment, whose notices will become a matter of public record after 60 days.

A Business-Changing Precedent
There’s more than a good chance that this action taken by the Louisiana State Legislature will be replicated in other States, and evolve into more stringent controls for our industry, including things like licensing and certification requirements and more.

Click Here to Read LA SB273

Join The MSP Regulation and Legislation Facebook Group
My good friend and colleague Amy Babinchak has launched the MSP Regulation and Legislation Facebook group to educate our industry and partners on this important topic and keep tabs on Local and State Governments’ moves towards regulation in order to help foster discussion, planning and response.

Here’s Amy’s Announcement:
Why we started this group. For many years there has been occasional talk about licensing IT professionals. Some were for it to raise the bar to entry; other against because of the fluidity of technology. But recently this talk has come out of the tech conference scene and into the political arena. Ransomware has hit enough businesses and more importantly (for this conversation) local and state governments that politicians are sitting up and taking notice. These politicians are mad at MSP’s that have promised security and failed to deliver. They are mad at IT providers that didn’t present secure options. They are mad at the waste of taxpayer money to pay ransoms and emergency recovery support services. In short, they are mad and they have noticed that we are an unregulated, unlicensed industry that was recently labelled “essential” when a crisis hit. Regulation is coming. Licensing may be coming. IT providers of all stripes will need representation because when it makes the bill stage, those with a proposal will be the ones that get listened to. Do you want that to be Apple, IBM, and Microsoft? Or do you want that to be you, someone with a real stake in the matter? This group hopes to be that voice.

So let’s begin educating ourselves, developing a plan and keeping a close watch on our local and state governments for moves toward regulation and be ready with our response.

Please help us grow this group by sharing it with your colleagues, friends, competitors, vendors and everyone else in this industry with a state in regulation and licensing of IT providers.