Susan Hansen at Bloomberg business reported that cyber attacks upend the attorney-client privilege.
The article started out with: “Dear Clients,” began the letter that law firm Ziprick & Cramer sent out in late February. “It is almost a daily occurrence that we read about cyber attacks in the news. Unfortunately, on or around January 25, 2015, our firm was the victim of a single cyber attack, by a relatively new variant of a Cryptolocker-type virus.” Cryptolocker is a kind of ransomware used to encrypt files so they’re unreadable; hackers then demand money to restore the data.
A security breach is one of the last things a lawyer wants to admit to a client. But the small firm in Redlands, Calif., faced it head-on, reporting the attack to the FBI and calling on its IT specialist to assess the damage and install safeguards to thwart future attacks. Partner Robert Ziprick says clients have been sympathetic and understand hacking is a problem for lots of businesses. “A lot of them are trying to figure it out, too,” he says.
Law firms of all sizes are vulnerable. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant says at least 80 of the 100 biggest firms in the country, by revenue, have been hacked since 2011. If you are in the legal business (or accounting, as this is just as valid for them) I recommend you read the whole story, or send this link to your own legal team.
The bottom line: Client pressure and scrutiny are forcing law firms to beef up their cyber defenses.
One of the things to start with is step everyone in the law office through effective security awareness training. Find out how affordable this is for your organization today.
