Cybersecurity Ignorance In the Legal Industry

The Cuba ransomware gang hacked legal services provider FRONTEO on May 11. The hackers, Russia-based despite the name, breached the Japanese-based firm’s U.S. operation and stole financial documents, correspondence with bank employees, account movements, balance sheets, tax documents, compensation and source code. A technology expert quoted in the eDiscovery Today article referenced here blasted the legal services industry in general for widespread breaches of both legal vendors and law firms. “The cybersecurity ignorance I saw and heard at Legaltech this year was off the chart. Pathetic.” His company is paid to attack law firms and legaltech vendors to probe for weaknesses, and finds them in spades. “It never ceases to amaze me the incompetence and simple ignorance of lawyers and legaltech ‘techies’ about the need for strong passwords, encryption, multifactor authentication, phishing scams, etc. Or the risks of using file sharing sites, and the simple moves to protect devices against malware.”