The frequency and intensity of malware attacks only continues to increase. The increase seems especially concentrated among those in the banking, financial services, health care, legal (and here and here) and governmental sectors.
Kaspersky Laboratory, which specializes in tracking malware of all types, found that in the first quarter of 2016, the number of attempted ransomware attacks increased by 30 percent from the previous quarter.
About 2,900 new ransomware modifications were detected during the quarter, which is an increase of 14% from the previous quarter.
In addition, “93 percent of phishing attacks come loaded with ransomware payloads.â€
Unfortunately, once your law firm’s network has been compromised with ransomware, there’s little you can do but start trying to remediate the situation.
Contrary to previous reports, the FBI does not support paying the ransom in ransomware attacks:
The FBI doesn’t support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack. “. . . Paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee an organization that it will get its data back—we’ve seen cases where 
organizations never got a decryption key after having paid the ransom. Paying a ransom not only emboldens current cyber criminals to target more organizations, it also offers an incentive for other criminals to get involved in this type of illegal activity. And finally, by paying a ransom, an organization might inadvertently be funding other illicit activity associated with criminals.â€
And US-CERT adds:
Paying the ransom does not guarantee the encrypted files will be released; it only guarantees that the malicious actors receive the victim’s money, and in some cases, their banking information. In addition, decrypting files does not mean the malware infection itself has been removed.
No one can prevent malware attacks. Law firms and individuals can only prevent malware, including ransomware, attacks from being successful.
Below is a new video we’ve put together offering some tips on protecting your law firm from ransomware and other cybersecurity threats.
If you want to learn more after viewing the below, watch our CEO’s webinar on The Rise of Ransomare and Its Threat to the Legal Profession. Enjoy!
Also, be certain to check out the stories linked above. Many provide tips on how to prevent successful ransomware attacks.
