The number of successful cyber attacks against UK law firms rose by 77% in the past year to 954, up from 538 the year before, according to a new study of the threat. Chartered accountants Lubbock Fine said that the wave is driven by criminals seeing law firms as prime targets for ransomware attacks or blackmail.
This is due to the sensitive personal and financial information they hold, which hackers can sell on the dark web or threaten to publish on the internet. Earlier this month, a global survey revealed that ransomware attackers have been paid off at least eight times in recent years.
Read more…
Source: The Law Society Gazette
Related:
- The Fall of LabHost: Law Enforcement Shuts Down Phishing Service Provider
April 18, 2024
In late 2021, LabHost (AKA LabRat) emerged as a new PhaaS platform, growing over time to eventually offer dozens of phishing pages targeting banks, high-profile organizations, and other service providers located around the world, but most notably in Canada, the US, and the UK. The popularity of the platform meant that at the time of the ...
- Northern Ireland: No disciplinary action over multimillion-pound PSNI data breach
April 11, 2024
Jon Boutcher said the error that is set to cost hundreds of millions of pounds was due to a systems failure, as he insisted he not would preside over a “blame culture” within the PSNI. In August last year the details of almost 9,500 PSNI officers and staff were mistakenly published in response to a Freedom ...
- Russia slaps sanctions on UK IT sector
April 10, 2024
Moscow has blacklisted 22 British government officials, members of the IT sector and legal service market as a measure of retaliation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Those blacklisted particularly include employees of British companies, namely Micro Focus, providing Ukrainian forces with “software and cyber protection services necessary in the process of data collection ...
- UK: Cyber security breaches survey 2024
April 9, 2024
Cyber security breaches and attacks remain a common threat. Half of businesses (50%) and around a third of charities (32%) report having experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months. This is much higher for medium businesses (70%), large businesses (74%) and high-income charities with £500,000 or more in annual ...
- NHS board warns patients of further data leak after cyber attack
April 9, 2024
An NHS board has warned patients that further personal information could be leaked by cyber criminals who stole medical data in a major cyber attack. A large amount of confidential data was taken from NHS Dumfries and Galloway during a sustained hacking attack. Last week, INC Ransom, an extortion operation, posted a message on its dark ...
- UK: Warning to ‘stay on guard’ after Leicester council cyber-attack
April 5, 2024
People have been told to “stay on their guard” after a cyber-attack on Leicester City Council. Police were alerted after the authority was forced to disable its phone and computer systems on 7 March. While about 25 documents have been posted by the apparent attackers, they claim to have a much larger number. Read more… Source:,BBC News