In light of previous Tech News Thursday articles such as The Dangers of Northern Ireland’s Police Force Data Breach by Tyrell. D, Tech News Thursday and Data Breaches and Vulnerabilities within an Organisation by Tyrell. D, Tech News Thursday , one ought to unearth a recent case in which the ‘magic circle’ law firm, Allen and Overy (abbreviated as A&O), fell victim to hackers in a ransomware attack.
As discussed by Sam Shead in a LinkedIn news entitled ‘ Why Hackers Target Law Firms by Sam Shead, LinkedIn News ‘ that the legal giant acknowledged that it “had a cyber security incident impacting a small number of storage servers,” which ultimately implied that they had been the target of a ransomware attack. This was in response to a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which claimed that a hacking group had targeted the firm with raising the possibility of a potential information leak.
In ‘ Threats and Key Takeaway’s for the Legal Sector by Mark.K, NCSC ‘, the National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom has cautioned that law firms are an especially attractive target for cybercriminals because of the abundance of data they possess on clients (and staff) operating in a variety of sectors and industries.
What will this mean for other law firms? Well, among the magic circle of elite law firms in London, A&O are accompanied by firms such as Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Slaughter and May, all of who embody a global presence within clientele as well as hackers. So, is it possible that these firms may also have privacy violations and face breaches too?
What exactly do you think this could mean for the world of law and the way in which it responds to cyber security?
See also:
Key differences between Magic Circle Law firms by Bright Network
Allen and Overy Hit by Hackers in Ransomware Attack by Suzi Ring, Financial Times