March 26, 2025 | Michael Fechter

Cybersecurity Liability

When federal agencies like the Treasury or Justice departments are hacked, it may be difficult to expect businesses to make their systems impenetrable. State Rep. Mike Giallombardo (R-Cape Coral), an Army veteran and member of the Florida National Guard who works in cybersecurity, sponsored a bill last year to protect local governments and businesses from liability if they “substantially compl(y) with the cybersecurity training, standards, and notification protocols under current law.” Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it, expressing concern it might inadvertently incentivize businesses to do just enough to secure the civil protection rather than do everything possible to protect their customers’ personal information.

Giallombardo refiled the bill after consulting with the governor’s staff and is confident that, if passed again, it will be signed into law.

The changing cyberthreat makes it nearly impossible to stop a determined hacker, he says, noting that Florida’s Department of Health suffered a breach last summer that saw thousands of people’s personal identification information posted on the Dark Web.

A hospital may have thousands of software and firmware programs ranging from bookkeeping to robotics, and individual physicians may have their own programs through which hackers can access the hospital’s network.

“You can’t possibly police everything and you can’t say everything is locked up tight,” Giallombardo says.

His bill extended liability protections enjoyed by governmental agencies to private sector businesses which “substantially” comply with the Commerce Department’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework.

His revised bill will beef up language defining what constitutes substantial compliance.

Heat Protections

Legislators attracted some national criticism last year when they passed a bill pre-empting local governments from enacting ordinances aimed at protecting people who work in extreme heat. Advocates said it was needed to avoid a patchwork of different rules from city to city, or county to county, and pointed to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to claim workers already were protected.

But OSHA has a proposed standard that is unlikely to be enacted anytime soon. An average of 40 workers in the United States died from heat exposure each year between 2011-22, OSHA reports, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The Tampa Bay Times reported 37 heat-related deaths went unreported in Florida during the last decade, based on reports from medical examiners throughout the state.

State Rep. Mike Gottlieb (D-Dania Beach) sponsored a bill last session that required convenient access to drinking water and 10-minute recovery breaks every two hours when temperatures rise above 90 degrees, but the bill never got a hearing. He refiled it for this year but is pessimistic about its chances. “The bill is not going to move. I think we both know that.”

Vacation Rentals

If lawmakers want to take another stab at legislation aimed at regulating vacation rentals, they’re going to need a new sponsor to carry it. State Sen. Nick DiCeglie (R-Indian Rocks Beach) declined to take a second stab at the thorny issue as he focuses on hurricane recovery in his district and other areas hard hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The issue pits the interests of investors who own vacation rentals against homesteaded neighbors often frustrated by the noise, trash and traffic a constant stream of visitors can bring. DiCeglie’s 2023 bill would have created triggers for enforcement action after multiple violations within 60 days, extended the state’s prohibition on local communities establishing their own regulations and required vacation rental owners to register with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

It passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who felt the bill took a “one-size-fits-all” approach “even though the vacation rental markets” differ throughout the state.

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Shutts & Bowen, Miami and West Palm Beach