NotPetya "ransomware" Froze Business At Global Law Firm DLA Piper

Kate Fazzini and Adam Janofsky at the Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent piece about the dangers of becoming collateral in global cyber warfare.

They wrote: "This week’s “Petya” cyberattack, which virtually froze business at the global law firm DLA Piper, stoked fears that such incidents could impede the financial sector through hindering the critical legal activity required for deals, litigation and initial public offerings.

DLA Piper, which represents some of the largest companies around the globe, has been brought to a standstill over the past two days as lawyers have been struggling to do business without access to emails or sensitive documents.

The recent attack illustrates how law firms and, by extension, their clients “are vulnerable to extortion in the form of ransomware,” said Columbia Law School professor John Coffee. “Suddenly encrypting deal documents in a merger essentially freezes it.”

Cybersecurity experts have long raised concerns about the risk of cyberattacks against law firms, whose troves of valuable trade secrets, market-moving deal news, and other sensitive information makes them attractive targets. Law firms have few regulatory requirements when it comes to data security, and generally don’t have the same resources as the financial companies they serve, such as investment banks and accounting firms.

“Law firms are very used to a policy of saying to clients, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ It’s a little hypocritical, but it does work that way,” said Prof. Coffee, an expert in corporate governance."

In a related article, Jacob Gershman and Kate Fazzini wrote:

"DLA Piper, which commands an army of thousands of lawyers across dozens of countries and represents some of the largest companies, has been at a virtual standstill for more than two days.

As of Thursday afternoon, its lawyers still couldn’t access firm computer systems or emails and were mostly “doing their best” from home computers, according to one New York partner. “The problem is when a law firm as big as DLA Piper goes dark, the ripple effects are huge,” said Mr. Edelson."

I recommend you send this link to your C-level suite.

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