Ransomware has been making news, whether right or wrong, depending on which side of the security angle you are – attacker or defender.
Ransomware has become a business model for attackers, with ransomware-as-a-service becoming commonly available. And for defenders, it has added to their woes.
Cited as one of the most devastating forms of cybercrimes, ransomware attacks leave the victims in the most pathetic state – an organization can ever imagine.
Ransomware Attacks: Why Hackers Love Law Firms?
There are numerous reasons why hackers love law firms and target them.
Law professionals are there to protect the general public from any mishap, and when they fall into a honeytrap set by hackers and are forced to dance to their tunes – it is a double bonanza for threat actors.
All said and done, here are a few reasons hackers love and target law firms.
Why Hackers Target Law Firms?
1. Huge quantities of valuable and sensitive data:
The amount of data law firms collect, store, and deal with is huge. And most of it is critically sensitive data like PIIs related to their clients, employees, and partners. But that is not all; law firms also collect confidential corporate information, trade secrets, and intellectual property, among other things.
2. Cybersecurity is not a priority for law firms
Especially for small and medium-sized law firms, Cybersecurity is not a priority. That’s the sad truth. While your firm may have gone digital, cybersecurity is an afterthought. Trust us when we say it is not the lack of security concern; it is not a priority now. Ironical, isn’t it? This is when there has been a significant rise in cyberattacks, especially phishing and ransomware attacks. With cybersecurity not being a priority, your firm leaves numerous loopholes in its security architecture, thus increasing the attack surfaces for hackers.
3. Unsecured websites
When you enter an unsecured website, you get a warning from your antivirus or firewall saying – the website you are entering is unsafe – your immediate reaction is to shut it. Unsecured websites give easy access to hackers to infiltrate and steal the information that passes through the website. Additionally, an unsecured website can make your customers wary of doing business with you.
4. Untrained employees
It has already been established humans are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. How can you strengthen this link? Through training and educating them on phishing emails and what can be repercussions of opening such emails. Think about this, the chances of untrained employees opening phishing emails increase by 70%, and this is a huge number for hackers to leverage the loophole.
5. Lack of Incident Response Plans
The criticality of incident response plans has been discussed repeatedly, yet numerous law firms don’t have IRPs set in place. If you think having Incident Response Plan in place is expensive, consider the expense and time consumption of a data breach.
Vectors of Malware – The Malicious Code Carriers
Some of the common vectors that carry or deploy malicious codes include:
Exploiting your vulnerabilities
Attackers are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities in your system, and any unpatched vulnerability is their entry ticket to your system. A report by Secureworks titled 2022 State of the Threat – revealed the exploitation of vulnerabilities was one of the common ransomware vectors in 2022. Vulnerabilities can be in terms of outdated software that has not been updated. There can be misconfiguration in the code that lets hackers enter your system. Once there, they deploy ransomware code. Security weaknesses should be treated with utmost urgency to avoid ransomware attacks.
Phishing
Can we say anything more about Phishing that has not been said earlier? Automated mass emailers, messages, or voice messages are all it takes to deploy a phishing attack. Hackers here rely on human error and gain unauthorized access to your system. Once inside, they deploy a ransomware code. Employees’ training and continuous monitoring for security weaknesses can help avoid ransomware attacks.
Compromised credentials
The second choice of weapon for hackers is compromised credentials, aka stolen or leaked credentials. Stolen credentials imply direct and authentic access to the system or sensitive data. How do you avoid attacks in such scenarios? Though there is no guarantee that your credentials will never leak, you can control the damage. Train your employees and yourself to update your credentials every now and then. Opt for longer and more complex passwords – which at a glance may pass off as gibberish but means something to you.
Distributed Denial of Service or DDOS
This is one of the standard cybercrimes hackers have indulged in for a long time. The attack is deployed by flooding a server with internet traffic to prevent users from assessing any online services connected to the server. It is challenging to protect against DDoS attacks because the entire idea is to overwhelm the victim. However, continuous monitoring of the internet traffic can help mitigate the threat.
Social engineering
This attack is a prime example of how hackers take advantage of human vulnerabilities to gain access to the system and deploy ransomware code. With legitimate credentials, it is a bit harder to protect against social engineering attacks; however, close monitoring of any suspicious activities can help mitigate the threat. Employees’ training can also help in preventing social engineering attacks.
Pop-ups
We have all seen them from time to time on our laptops, desktops, and other devices. While the pop-ups are legitimate advertisements, they can be injected with malicious code, and you may not know about them. It is difficult to protect against malicious pop-ups, but employee training and restricting pop-ups can help mitigate the threat.
Remote Desktop Protocol
It is generally used by IT teams to troubleshoot the problem remotely. But with vulnerabilities in your system, hackers can also access and control your devices as per their will. The best way to mitigate this threat is by restricting user access to RDP.
How Ransomware Affects Law Firms?
Law firms need to guard their data with their life is not just a statement for legal professionals. It should always be on the minds of lawyers and law firms.
For law firms losing any amount of data can prove to be catastrophic. And if that data is released on the dark web, it can be shut down for that law firm.
Ransomware – The Cost And Its Effects
The kind and amount of data law firms collect makes them a lucrative target for hackers. The variety of data includes PIIs related to clients, employees, corporate partners, and rival firms. But that’s not all.
Law firms are a goldmine of data as they collect highly sensitive data, including:
- Employee Data
- Data about the potential and existing clients
- Data that is used for representation received by a client
- Other data that is used for representation during a court hearing
Losing any of the above data can have a disastrous effect on a law firm. And no money is not even a point here.
It should be understood that a law firm thrives on trust. When a breach happens, clients lose trust in a law firm. This affects the reputation of a law firm.
Mitigate Ransomware Threats with ADD’s Data Protection
Law firms must understand the importance of the data they store, collect, and process.
So, for a law firm, data protection should not be an afterthought but a part of the entire architecture. And in most cases, it is seen that a law firm lacks the resources required for robust data protection.
This is where Ace Data, with its contemporary and cut-throat data protection services, steps in to protect your data – on-premises or on the cloud. Ace Data examines your environment. and removes the burden of protecting your data from your team. Ace Data offers continuous data backup features and helps law firms continue doing what they do best.
If you are looking for a viable solution to up your data protection, reach out to us on info@ace-data.com or visit our website https://ace-data.com
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