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:
- University College London Suffers Major Ransomware Attack
June 16, 2017
The University College London (UCL) has been hit by a major ransomware attack on June 15, with the infection reaching personal and shared drives in the network. UCL admins explained in updates posted on the official website that the infection was most likely possible because of a zero-day, pointing out that antivirus systems failed to detect ...
- Brit hacker admits he siphoned info from US military satellite network
June 16, 2017
A UK-based computer hacker has admitted stealing hundreds of usernames and email addresses from a US military communications system. Sean Caffrey, 25, of Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, broke in and pinched the ranks, usernames and email addresses of more than 800 users of a satellite communications system and of about 30,000 satellite phones, back ...
- Zomato Breach Exposes 17M User Records, Makes Deal with Hacker to Destroy Data
May 19, 2017
Restaurant guide Zomato has announced that it has been the victim of a data breach which saw the records of 17 million users being stolen from its database. The bad news is that 6.6 million of those are already on sale on a dark web marketplace. The good news is that the company has more ...
- The government slashed NHS IT security contract despite warnings it would leave systems vulnerable to cyberattack
May 13, 2017
The UK government were repeatedly warned that NHS IT isystems were running on outdated operating systems that were vulnerable to attack, yet failed to ensure they were protected. Freedom of Information requests last sumer revealed that trusts across the country were still using Windows XP, despite a government contract with Microsoft to update protections for the system having ...
- UK hospital meltdown after ransomware worm uses NSA vulnerability to raid IT
May 12, 2017
UK hospitals have effectively shut down and are turning away non-emergency patients after ransomware ransacked its networks. Some 16 NHS organizations across Blighty – including several hospital trusts such as NHS Mid-Essex CCG and East and North Hertfordshire – have had their files scrambled by a variant of the WannaCrypt, aka WanaCrypt aka Wcry, nasty. Users ...
- UK businesses concerned about cyber-risks linked to smart energy tech
May 8, 2017
The latest PwC B2B Energy Survey found that 65 percent of UK businesses are significantly concerned about the issue of cyber-risks and over half (51 percent) are worried that their client data isn’t handled with enough security by their energy supplier. The research included responses from more than 500 UK businesses. If their energy supplier fell victim ...