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:

  • Bristol Airport blames hackers for three day technical meltdown

    September 16, 2018

    A cyber attack was the cause behind a three day technical meltdown, according to Bristol Airport. The airport’s information screens were out of service on both Friday and Saturday, with holidaymakers having to read departure times off whiteboards scattered around the airport. An airport spokesman said several systems were taken offline on Friday in a bid to ...

  • Government mass surveillance breached human rights, says European court

    September 13, 2018

    Mass surveillance and data collection programs used by the UK government breached privacy and don’t meet the necessary legal requirements to guarantee rights will be upheld, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. The court has concluded that the UK’s mass interception programmes breached the European Convention on Human Rights. The case of ‘Big ...

  • Five Eyes governments get even tougher on encryption

    September 2, 2018

    “The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are committed to personal rights and privacy, and support the role of encryption in protecting those rights,” began a document agreed to last week. Sounds good. But wait. The government ministers who met on Australia’s Gold Coast last week went on to ...

  • UK MoD teams up with TechVets to train veterans in cyber security

    August 15, 2018

    The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a partnership agreement with the not-for-profit start-up TechVets to help veterans get jobs in the cyber security and technology sector, TechVets, which specialises in helping veterans get jobs in the tech sector, will work with the MOD’s flagship training programme for service leavers, under a new agreement. The agreement will ...

  • Cyber attacks are now a matter of when not if for UK businesses

    July 2, 2018

    For a growing number of UK companies, being hit by a cyber breach is not a matter of ‘if’ – it’s a matter of ‘when’. This is according to a new report by KPMG based on a poll of 150 UK leaders. When compared to the rest of the world, though, the UK is performing well, as according to ...

  • There’s a new £13.5m government-backed London office for cyber security innovation opening today at Plexal

    June 26, 2018

    The London Office for Rapid Cyber security Advancement (LORCA) has officially opened its doors today in East London. Launched by digital secretary Matt Hancock, LORCA will be run by tech innovation centre Plexal, located on the Here East digital campus inside Plexal City. The government-backed £13.5m centre will help the UK’s newest cyber security startups on their ...