The threat of cyber attacks is prominent, especially given the growth of businesses operating solely online during the pandemic. Therefore, corporations are increasingly the target of these attacks, and the damage they can cause is significant. The costs of these attacks can be significant, both in terms of financial damage and harm to their reputation.
EXAMPLES OF CYBERATTACKS ON CORPORATIONS
Many corporations have been victims to cyberattacks, Here are some incidents where this has occurred:
Marriott Hotels faced a cyberattack in 2020, where 339M guests had their data compromised. They were later fined £18.4M for the breach (Clear Insurance, 2021)
Again Marriott Hotels became a victim this year, in June 2022 hackers claim to have access more than 20GB of sensitive data including guests’ credit card data (The Chartered Institute for IT, 2022)
A Russian cyber gang, Conti, caused disruption to the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica (The Chartered Institute for IT, 2022)
Uber were faced with a data breach which gave hackers access to personal data of 57M users and drivers.
Vodaphone Portugal were faced with a cyberattack that impacted their 4G/5G network, television and answering services (Yottled, 2022)
This is a non-exhaustive list of cyberattack incidents faced by corporations.
TYPES OF CYBERATTACKS
Cyber attacks can take many forms as outlined below (The Corporate Law Academy, 2022):
Distributed denial of service attack: This is where hackers can barrage a website and cause too too many connection requests, leading to the website breaking down
Trojan horse: This is a code that may appear innocent at first, but when clicked it gives hackers access to company data. This can come in an invitation to email which may be clicked by employees.
Spear Phishing: This is often sent in by the hackers in the form of an internal company email. When employees click on this, it can provide access to company data
Man in the middle attack: This often occurs in public wifi services, when a computer is connected to this the hackers can key-log the information being typed.
Botnets: This comes in the form of a malicious software that generates spam to a company.
Ransomware attack: This is where hackers have already gained data access and they utilise this to blackmail companies for money in exchange to not leak their information.
WHAT CAN LAW FIRMS DO?
Law firms can play a vital role in helping to mitigate these risks. They can help companies to reduce their vulnerability to cyber attacks in several ways.
Firstly, they can help to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities to assist companies to target areas they must improve on. Secondly, they can assist with the development of robust security policies, procedures and software to avoid attacks in the first place. Some law firms can look into investing into a data protection practice in order to provide high-level advice to clients. Finally, they can provide specialist advice and support in the event of an attack and ensure the company is compliant in protecting customer data in the event of a leak.
Cyber security is a complex and ever-evolving area. Law firms that are able to provide comprehensive and up-to-date advice will be best placed to assist their clients in this rapidly changing environment. Focussing on growth within this area can help law firms remain competitive in such a saturated legal industry.
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Written by: Sarah Amini (The News Club Founder)
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