The past month has presumably been quite eye-opening for the many, many law firms that have been sleeping on their significant cybersecurity exposure. From an unusual and specific warning by the FBI, to reports of elite law firms being hacked, to the blockbuster “Panama Papers” matter, law firms are now firmly on notice that they are in the crosshairs of hackers worldwide.
To recap, as I noted here, on March 4, 2016, the FBI’s Cyber Division issued a Private Industry Notification alerting law firms that “[i]n a recent cyber criminal forum post, a criminal actor posted an advertisement to hire a technically proficient hacker for the purposes of gaining sustained access to the networks of multiple international law firms.” The FBI stated that the criminals’ motive was to gain access to inside information in law firm networks that could be used for insider trading.
