Cyber attacks on law firms jumped by 77% over the past year


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 


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Deputy Prime Minister hosts first global conference targeting ‘hackers for hire’ and malicious use of commercial cyber tools

    February 6, 2024

    UK, and France, hosting 35 nations at inaugural conference to tackle proliferation and irresponsible use of commercial cyber intrusion tools and services. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will launch new international agreement, signed by participants, to take joint-action – the ‘Pall Mall Process’. States will be joined by big tech leaders, legal experts, and human rights defenders, ...

  • UK: Thousands of EU citizens ‘wrongly fined for breaching Ulez rules’ in potential record data breach

    January 26, 2024

    Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens were wrongly fined for driving in London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), amid claims of a record data breach. Several EU countries have accused Transport for London (TfL) of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of their citizens to issue the penalties, The Guardian reports. The paper said more than ...

  • UK councils remain downed by cyberattack

    January 26, 2024

    Three local councils in the United Kingdom continue to experience disruption to their online services, a week after confirming a cyberattack had knocked some systems offline. The councils for Canterbury, Dover, and Thanet — all of which are based in the U.K. county of Kent and have a combined population of almost 500,000 residents — said ...

  • UK: Cybercriminals claim to have stolen data from Southern Water

    January 24, 2024

    Cybercriminals claim they have stolen data from a water company’s IT systems. Southern Water, which has hundreds of thousands of customers in Kent, says it has detected suspicious activity and launched an investigation led by cybersecurity experts. But it says there is no evidence to suggest “customer relationships or financial systems” have been affected. In a ...

  • New TTPs observed in Mint Sandstorm campaign targeting high-profile individuals at universities and research orgs

    January 17, 2024

    Since November 2023, Microsoft has observed a distinct subset of Mint Sandstorm (PHOSPHORUS) targeting high-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In this campaign, Mint Sandstorm used bespoke phishing lures in an attempt to socially engineer targets into downloading ...

  • Hackers target UK in huge cyber attack ‘in response to airstrikes in Yemen’

    January 13, 2024

    Hackers say they launched a massive cyber attack against the UK in response to airstrikes in Yemen. Anonymous Sudan said Friday’s raid on an internet company was also because Britain had shown “support” for Israel. In a statement on messaging platform Telegram, the group warned: “Big attack on UK soon, in response to the air attacks ...