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Law Firms Facing Unprecedented Cyber Risk

By Mark Sangster

For years, various government authorities and security experts warned the legal industry about the proverbial cyber target painted on their chest. And while a cornucopian crop of headlines bloomed about data breaches, most concentrated on major retailers or recognizable brands. Given nebulous reporting legislations, the data breaches at law firms remained below the press horizon. But you can only dodge so many bullets until one hits the industry square in the chest. Recently, the legal industry found itself in the spotlight as story after story about data stolen from law firms surfaced. And the media frenzy culminated when Mossack Fonseca became the poster child for hacked law firms, earning the moniker of the Panama Papers.

If the multi-law firm hack story was the first shot over the bow, then the Panama Papers leak will become a torpedo. With a record-setting data heist and enviable client list of who's-who in government, business and entertainment, the Panama Papers leak struck a chord and unequivocally confirmed that legal wasn't just a target ' it is the target. And it is a bellwether for an industry in a fugue, unable to conceive that their firms held anything of value; certainly not anything worth stealing. Well, it turns out that boring old shell companies and tax filings had a value.

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