Technology

Lawyers Want Court To Tell Criminals Not To Release Data They Already Stole

Oh, well, THIS will surely stop them.

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(Image via Getty)

In one of the dumbest tweets of the last few weeks, Ben Shapiro lamented that no NYC mayoral candidate suggested banning crime. If only we’d thought to make crime illegal before!

Slightly less wacky but certainly in the same vein, a barristers’ chambers, 4 New Square Chambers, has gone to court to get a court order barring the ransomware attackers who hit the barristers already from releasing the stolen data. Yes, they want a court order telling criminals to please not do more criminal stuff.

And they managed to get it!

Handed down by Mrs Justice Steyn, the injunction orders the ransomware criminals not to “use, publish or communicate or disclose to any other person” any of the (unspecified) data they stole in June. No data from 4 New Square appears to have been published on the known ransomware gangs’ Tor-hosted leak blogs, though the injunction return date is this Friday (9 July).

Now, why would this order impede Russian or North Korean hackers from following through on a criminal enterprise they’ve already half completed? Unclear. Perhaps it’s just a natural human reaction to helplessness. The firm’s doing the only thing they know they can — win court orders — in the face of this horrible turn of luck. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to help, but getting, and more importantly staying, ahead of the problem can.

Or, hey, maybe this is just what it takes to get those hackers to stop. Wow, we should’ve thought of this before!

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Ransomware-hit law firm gets court order asking crooks not to publish the data they stole [The Register]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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