Why Jennifer Lawrence's Leaked Nude Photos Should Be Important to Lawyers

What lessons can lawyers learn from this unfortunate episode?

In case you haven’t heard, over the weekend a whole bunch of celebrities got hacked and nude photos of them leaked onto the internet. Let me just start out by saying that hacking into a celebrity’s phone and stealing her nude photos is just a horrible thing. It’s not a funny joke. It’s not something hackers should be high fiving over. Celebrities have the right to live private lives like everyone else and they have the right to take and keep private photos. On top of the embarrassment of having their private photos available to their parents and all of their fans and every pervert with an internet connection, it could seriously damage their careers. This should be another big warning slap in the face to everyone who stores private or confidential things on the internet, especially lawyers.

What lessons can lawyers learn from this unfortunate episode?

This Happened Because They Stored Unsecured Files In the Cloud.

No one knows exactly how this happened, but the leading theory is that the celebrities had their phones set to sync to their iCloud accounts, and then had their iCloud accounts hacked.

I noted a while ago that people need to secure their cloud accounts, but apparently Katniss does not read Above the Law.

Lawyers’ Documents Are Important to Hackers for the Same Reason Nude Celebrity Photos Are.

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Celebrities with nude photos in their cloud accounts are targets for the same reason lawyers with confidential client files in cloud accounts are: they are easy targets with highly bribable files. Lawyers are mostly clueless when it comes to cybersecurity, yet they use it to store their most valuable information. It would be as if a group of people who barely understand how locks work were to store boxes of cash in lock boxes at the train station. A smart thief would come by and jiggle the lock every once in a while for an easy score.

The guy who published the nude celebrity photos tried to solicit money before publishing them (although, apparently, he only made about $100). What would all of the confidential client files be worth to an attorney? Although many insurance carriers offer policies to protect against data breaches, they offer little solace because money cannot indemnify against the consequences. When you find out one client’s files have been accessed, you have to warn your other clients that their data might also be breached. You risk losing your current clients, your reputation, and future clients. A law practice is current clients plus future clients plus some office furniture. Don’t be left with just the office furniture.

So, What Else Can We Do To Protect Our Files?

I always hate doom and gloom articles that don’t offer practical solutions, and based on experience, that almost always means free and easy solutions. So, here is a free and easy solution to adding additional security to your cloud files (on top of the last ones I gave you).

1. Encrypt your files in Zip Files.

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I use WinRAR, which you can download here. If you have to keep files on the cloud, be it for sharing or storage, zip your confidential files. WinRAR allows you to password protect zip files.

Add to archive… and the following menu comes up. Click “Set password” at the bottom:

Now, if your files are hacked, the hackers can’t access your files without the zip file password. Email the link to the password-protected zip file and the password in a separate emails. That way, if one email ever unintentionally becomes part of a long chain that gets forwarded to someone else, they can’t access the files without the second half of the puzzle.

2. Empty the Trash in Your Cloud Storage.

In Dropbox, one of the best features is the ability to restore deleted files, but that can also leave a good place for hackers to look for files you think are gone. Remember, one of the celebrities had deleted her photos.

Google Drive and other popular cloud apps have similar features. Make sure that you permanently delete or empty the trash from your cloud storage.

3. Make Your File Sharing Links Temporary.

Some Cloud apps, like Dropbox, allow you to create links to share files or folders. They also have an option to make the links temporary. You can also go into your sharing settings and view all of your currently active links and disable them. By keeping links active forever, you run the risk of an unintended third party finding the link and accessing your files after you have forgotten about them.

Conclusion

I doubt anyone who had their photos hacked had not heard of previous scandals involving celebrities, but they probably brushed them off. It’s a lot easier to be that one guy who is overly cautious with his online security than that one guy who got his client files hacked.


Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner from San Diego. When not handling his own cases, he’s consulting lawyers on how to use technology to not be boring in trial or managing e-discovery projects in mass torts/complex litigation cases. If you want to be disappointed in a lack of posts, you can follow him on twitter or on Facebook. If you have any ideas of things you want him to cover, email Jeff at jeff@trial.technology.

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