Rather than waiting until it’s too late, law firms are opening up bitcoin wallets to pay ransoms in case their data is stolen, according to a cybersecurity expert.
John Sweeney, president of IT and cybersecurity advisors LogicForce, said that law firms are taking proactive steps rather than reactive steps. However, while he doesn’t necessarily agree with paying ransoms, he said that it ‘makes sense’ to be prepared, reports Business Insider.
This year has seen several data breaches where hackers have demanded ransoms to be paid in bitcoin. At the beginning of the year, an Austrian hotel was ordered to pay a bitcoin ransom to regain access to its rooms; in May, Disney’s Pirates film was held for ransom by hackers; and in June a South Korean firm paid a $1 million bitcoin ransom in order to retrieve its data.
Unsurprisingly, the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea has told local banks not to cave into threats by DDoS attackers, following the million-dollar ransom paid by the South Korean firm.
Yet, while countless individuals have paid ransom demands to hackers to regain access to their files that’s not always the case. One example is the NotPetya hack, which occurred this summer. Even though victims paid the ransom, it was reported that they were unlikely to have received the decryption keys to access their files.
Sweeney believes, though, that firms must do more to protect themselves. According to him, the chances of the hacker being caught is slim and the probability of them being prosecuted is even smaller.
He said:
We are predicting there are going to be more sophisticated attempts to intrude at firms that work with highly visible clients whose IP or business information is extremely valuable.
LogicForce is reportedly going to be opening up its own bitcoin account in the next few weeks in order to assist with client ‘disaster recovery.’