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NLJ this week: Held to ransom by cybercriminals? What to do if it happens to you

03 March 2023
Issue: 8015 / Categories: Legal News , Cybercrime , Criminal , Technology , Profession , Risk management
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Cybercriminals are getting bolder, smarter and better at what they do. In this week’s NLJ, Kingsley Hayes, head of data and privacy litigation at law firm Keller Postman, offers practical advice to law firms on how to combat this ever-lurking threat and what to do in the nightmarish event of an attack.

He uses the December 2022 ransomware attack at The Guardian newspaper and media group as a salutary example—hackers often make successful phishing attacks during festivities when employees are more likely to be caught off guard. Using the Guardian ransomware as illustration, Hayes offers advice on what law firms, in the event of an attack, should do next.

Hayes writes: ‘For a law firm to fall victim to a cyberattack similar to the one at The Guardian might seem unthinkable, but it has happened before and recent events show that attacks will continue to occur. Analysis of cyberattacks demonstrates that phishing attempts directed at large, global organisations and small UK firms have been successful. These can often result from a single, isolated human error.’ 

Read the full article here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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