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 transport website caught showing porn
November 25, 2021
A UK Department for Transport (DfT) website was caught serving porn earlier today. The particular DfT subdomain behind the mishap, on most days, provides vital DfT statistics for the public and the department’s business plan. Racy traffic ahead The UK DfT’s charts.dft.gov.uk website was seen serving porn today, as confirmed by BleepingComputer. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- RedCurl corporate espionage hackers resume attacks with updated tools
November 18, 2021
A crew of highly-skilled hackers specialized in corporate espionage has resumed activity, one of their victims this year being a large wholesale company in Russia. Tracked as RedCurl, the group attacked the Russian business twice this year, each time using carefully constructed spear-phishing emails with initial-stage malware. Active since 2018, RedCurl is responsible for at least 30 ...
- UK and US join forces to strike back in cyber-space
November 18, 2021
The US and UK are joining forces to “impose consequences” on their shared adversaries who conduct malicious cyber-activities. The combined action would address “evolving threats with a full range of capabilities”, they said. The shared adversaries were not named but the announcement follows increasing concern over Russia-based ransomware. Read more… Source: BBC News
- Iranian Government-Sponsored APT Cyber Actors Exploiting MS Exchange and Fortinet Vulnerabilities in Furtherance of Malicious Activities
November 17, 2021
This joint cybersecurity advisory is the result of an analytic effort among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to highlight ongoing malicious cyber activity by an advanced persistent threat (APT) group that FBI, ...
- New Zealand spooks say satellite snooping is obsolete – better intel is found elsewhere
November 11, 2021
New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – the nation’s signals intelligence and infosec agency – will retire its Waihopai satellite communications interception station because it’s no longer needed. “The nature of telecommunications has changed, and other needs and capabilities have overtaken the sort of satellite communication interception that has been done at Waihopai,” said Andrew ...
- Average ransomware payment for US victims more than $6 million, survey says
November 9, 2021
A new report from Mimecast has found that the US leads the way in the size of payouts following ransomware incidents. In the “State of Ransomware Readiness” study from Mimecast, researchers spoke with 742 cybersecurity professionals and found that 80% of them had been targeted with ransomware over the last two years. Of that 80%, 39% paid ...