Cyberattack Takes Down Michigan Bar Exam

ExamSoft, one of the three vendors offering the online exam that certifies potential attorneys in Michigan, says its test was hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which involves a hacker or group attempting to take down a server by overwhelming it with traffic. The exam went offline. “This was a sophisticated attack specifically aimed at the login process for the ExamSoft portal which corresponded with an exam session for the Michigan Bar,” ExamSoft said in a statement on Tuesday. The company worked with the Michigan Board of Law Examiners to give test takers more time to take the exam after it was up and running again. Law school graduates have been advocating for states to waive the requirement for potential attorneys to pass the bar exam to practice law, citing health concerns with taking it in-person during the pandemic, and privacy and security issues involved with taking it online. United for Diploma Privilege, a national group of law students, graduates, professors and lawyers pushing for the bar exam to be waived, raised concerns about data privacy issues involved in the cyberattack. “If this was such a sophisticated attack, what do they have to say about the biodata collected during exam administration?” the group tweeted.