As used in this chapter:

Terms Used In North Dakota Code 26.1-02.2-01

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute means the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • Individual: means a human being. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49

1.    “Authorized individual” means an individual known to and screened by the licensee and determined to be necessary and appropriate to have access to the nonpublic information held by the licensee and the licensee’s information systems.

2.    “Commissioner” means the insurance commissioner.

3. “Consumer” means an individual, including an applicant, policyholder, insured, beneficiary, claimant, and certificate holder, who is a resident of this state and whose nonpublic information is in a licensee’s possession, custody, or control.

4.    “Cybersecurity event” means an event resulting in unauthorized access to, disruption, or misuse of, an information system or nonpublic information stored on the information system. The term does not include:

a.    The unauthorized acquisition of encrypted nonpublic information if the encryption, process, or key is not also acquired, released, or used without authorization; or

b.    An event the licensee has determined that the nonpublic information accessed by an unauthorized person has not been used or released and has been returned or destroyed.

5.    “Department” means the insurance department.

6.    “Encrypted” means the transformation of data into a form that results in a low probability of assigning meaning without the use of a protective process or key.

7.    “Information security program” means the administrative, technical, and physical safeguards a licensee uses to access, collect, distribute, process, protect, store, use, transmit, dispose of, or otherwise handle nonpublic information.

8.    “Information system” means a discrete set of electronic information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of electronic nonpublic information, as well as any specialized system, including industrial or process controls systems, telephone switching, private branch exchange systems, and environmental control systems.

9.    “Licensee” means any person licensed, authorized to operate, registered, or required to be licensed, authorized, or registered pursuant to the insurance laws of this state.

The term does not include a purchasing group or a risk retention group chartered and licensed in another state or a licensee that is acting as an assuming insurer that is domiciled in another state or jurisdiction.

10.    “Multi-factor authentication” means authentication through verification of at least two of the following types of authentication factors:

a.    Knowledge factors, including a password; b.    Possession factors, including a token or text message on a mobile phone; or c.    Inherence factors, including a biometric characteristic.

11.    “Nonpublic information” means electronic information that is not publicly available information and is:

a.    Any information concerning a consumer which can be used to identify the consumer because of name, number, personal mark, or other identifier in combination with any one or more of the following data elements:

(1) Social security number; (2) Driver’s license number or nondriver identification card number; (3) Financial account number or credit or debit card number; (4) Any security code, access code, or password that would permit access to a consumer’s financial account; or

(5) Biometric records.

b.    Any information or data, except age or gender, in any form or medium created by or derived from a health care provider or a consumer which can be used to identify a particular consumer and relates to:

    (1) The past, present, or future physical, mental, or behavioral health or condition of any consumer or a member of the consumer’s family; (2) The provision of health care to any consumer; or

(3) Payment for the provision of health care to any consumer.

12.    “Person” means any individual or any nongovernmental entity, including any nongovernmental partnership, corporation, branch, agency, or association.

13.    “Publicly available information” means any information a licensee has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records; widely distributed media; or disclosures to the general public which are required to be made by federal, state, or local law. A licensee has a reasonable basis to believe that information is lawfully made available to the general public if the licensee has taken steps to determine:

a.    The information is of the type available to the general public; and

b.    Whether a consumer can direct the information not be made available to the general public and, if so, that the consumer has not done so.

14.    “Risk assessment” means the risk assessment that each licensee is required to conduct under section 26.1-02.2-03.

15.    “Third-party service provider” means a person, not otherwise defined as a licensee, that contracts with a licensee to maintain, process, store, or otherwise is permitted access to nonpublic information through its provision of services to the licensee.