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:
- UK Government hackers made hundreds of thousands of stolen credit cards ‘worthless’ to crooks
May 10, 2022
A joint operation involving intelligence agency GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence took direct action against computer networks used by cyber criminals, helping to protect people against cyberattacks and also making hundreds of thousands of stolen credit cards worthless to the crooks who stole them. The action by the National Cyber Force – using the combined ...
- UK: Phishing operation hits National Health Service email accounts to harvest Microsoft credentials
May 5, 2022
A phishing operation compromised over one hundred UK National Health Service (NHS) employees’ Microsoft Exchange email accounts for credential harvesting purposes, according to email security shop Inky. During the phishing campaign, which began in October 2021 and spiked in March 2022, the email security firm detected 1,157 phishing emails originating from NHSMail accounts that belonged to ...
- UK: Met Police is planning to root out corruption with use of ‘sophisticated’ new technology that monitors officers’ phones and computers
April 25, 2022
The Met Police will root out rogue officers with ‘sophisticated’ new technology that can monitor officers’ emails and work phones for ‘alarming’ words in a bid to stamp out its culture of sexism and racism. The software will also track their movements while in a police station and even monitor tasks like photocopying – as replicating ...
- Five Eyes nations fear wave of Russian attacks against critical infrastructure
April 20, 2022
The Five Eyes nations’ cybersecurity agencies this week urged critical infrastructure to be ready for attacks by crews backed by or sympathetic to the Kremlin amid strong Western opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The joint alert, issued by cybersecurity authorities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, provides technical details on more than ...
- UK Prime Minister, Catalan groups ‘targeted by NSO Pegasus spyware’
April 18, 2022
Citizen Lab has reported finding suspected surveillance software on devices associated with both the UK Prime Minister’s Office and what was formerly called the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Canadian research outfit also said it had identified at least 65 individuals linked with Catalan civil society groups in Spain who were targeted by, or infected ...
- UK: Police anti-terror IT system was ‘not fit for purpose’ – former officer
April 13, 2022
A key intelligence database used by police to investigate extremists was “not fit for purpose” when introduced in 2014, a former counter-terrorism officer has told the BBC. The officer, who retired in 2018, says the National Common Intelligence Application (NCIA) had serious flaws. Counter Terrorism Policing says “substantial improvements” were made following a significant review after terror ...