On March 4, 2016, the FBI’s Cyber Division issued a Private Industry Notification (via Bloomberg BNA) 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 Cyber Division added that the criminals are seeking to gain access to law firm networks in order to obtain material, nonpublic information that can be used for insider trading.
The Cyber Division also advised law firms that they can help deter hackers through defensive measures such as scrutinizing links and not opening attachments in emails, disabling macros, and otherwise educating employees on “appropriate preventative and reactive actions to known criminal schemes….”
