Do you know how secure your law firm is? According to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, many are not secure enough: Yesterday, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced charges against three individuals, stating that they had targeted at least seven law firms in order to gain insider information upon which to trade.
“As alleged, the defendants – including Iat Hong, who was arrested in Hong Kong on Christmas Day – targeted several major New York law firms, specifically looking for inside information about pending mergers and acquisitions. They allegedly hacked into two prominent law firms, stole the emails of their M&A partners, and made over $4 million in illegal profits," said Bharara in a statement. "This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world: you are and will be targets of cyber hacking, because you have information valuable to would-be criminals."
It's another good reminder that your data is at risk, even when (maybe especially when) others are trusted with it.
