Cybercrime

LockBit threatened to publish the Biglaw firm's data unless it negotiated a price by November 28, and now the firm has been removed from hackers' site on the dark web. What could this mean?

The hackers threatened to publish the Biglaw firm's data unless it negotiates a price by November 28.

This was entirely predictable.

At least 75 U.S. and European companies, three dozen advocacy and media groups, and numerous Western business executives were the subjects of these hacking attempts.

Countering disinformation in a deepfake world.

Disinformation attacks create the perfect storm on a global level by traversing hemispheres and social classes in a matter of moments.

* Capital One asks, “What’s In Your Wallet? No, seriously, you’ve been hacked.” [NY Times]

* If you’re looking for “it could be worse” solace during the bar exam, here are some blunders. [Law.com]

* Law firm that aggressively clings to complete and total opacity in attorney pay confused why people think it’s systematically trying to screw people. [American Lawyer]

* Another “let’s make illegal stops as a publicity stunt” scheme falls apart. [Yahoo]

* Checking in on Michael Avenatti, he’s asking for access to his firm servers because the government’s already mirrored everything relevant and he needs his files for his defense. That seems pretty reasonable. [Law360]

* Now GDPR is targeting companies who ask folks to “Like” them. Maybe Brexit isn’t as stupid as it looks. [Corporate Counsel]

* Shocking no one, the gun used in the California festival shooting came from another state. Federalism! [Buzzfeed News]

* Now Spider-Man is trying to save America from high drug prices. Big pharma, on the other hand, is rooting for the Thanos solution. [The Recorder]

* Weekend at Bernie’s meets The Verdict: Attorney kept pushing after his client died and never bothered to tell anyone. [ABA Journal]

* Thornton Law Firm gets off on campaign fraud charges. Thornton had helped out Democrats… the Republicans on the FEC let them off. Even though this transparently helps Trump’s claims vis a vis Cohen, he’ll probably complain about it anyway. [CommonWealth Magazine]

* Law firms fall prey to cybercrime… again. [American Lawyer]

* Trump’s unveiled a new immigration “plan” that reads like one of Steve King’s wet dreams. [USA Today]

* Purdue Pharma’s legal problems mount faster than the rampant addiction problem they’ve spread. [Washington Post]

* Tex McIver, the law firm partner who killed his wife because he was scared of black people, thinks he should be able to sue over his wife’s death… that he caused. [Daily Report]

* “Absent a showing that the requested enforcement action could not shake loose a few more emails, the case is not moot.” Because 2016 isn’t over yet and we love kicking horses thought to be dead, the D.C. Circuit has revived a legal challenge regarding Hillary Clinton’s private email server that was once considered to be moot. [Reuters]

* The Supreme Court may be taking a turn to the conservative side come 2017, but not immediately. It’s expected that shortly after his inauguration, President Trump will announce his nominee in either late January or early February, with confirmation hearings held in March, and a vote sometime in April. By the time a new justice is sworn in, there will be just a few days left of oral arguments for the current Term. [NPR]

* “This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world.” Three Chinese hackers have been charged with breaking into the servers of several Biglaw firms — firms like Cravath and Weil Gotshal — to illegally trade on stolen information. They made more than $4 million, but only one of them has been arrested thus far and is awaiting extradition to the United States. [Bloomberg]

* “Providing a profit motive to make arrests gives officers an incentive to make improper arrests.” In counties across the country, those who are arrested must pay “booking fees,” regardless of whether or not they are found guilty of their crimes. Two cases regarding these fees will soon be heard by the Supreme Court in early 2017, and one county was so brazen that it didn’t even bother to submit a brief in opposition. [New York Times]

* If you’re applying to law school, you may be wondering how you can make the strongest argument for your acceptance in your application. Focus on your essays and make sure that you provide compelling examples of the type of person you are and your career goals. If you can sway just one person on the admissions committee to give you a chance, then you might soon find an acceptance letter with your name on it. [U.S. News]

Now is a good time to point out some helpful hints when it comes to using the cloud.

* According to a statement released by the RIAA, hundreds of musicians and songwriters — like Katy Perry, for example — have called on Congress to reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Safe-harbor clauses are absolutely killing the artists’ bottom line, and something must be done. [THR, ESQ. / Hollywood Reporter]

* “[M]any law firms have had breaches, which they’ve kept quiet.” Following the news that Cravath and Weil Gotshal had been victims of data breaches, Edelson, a plaintiff’s side firm, announced it would be filing class-action suits against 15 major Biglaw firms with cybersecurity problems. We can’t wait to find out which ones will be on the receiving end of these complaints. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Being the world’s first publicly traded law firm has turned out to be quite the debacle for Slater & Gordon. First, the Australian firm announced market losses of about $740 million, citing “underperformance in U.K. operations,” and now its general counsel has decided to throw in the towel after only two months on the job. Ouch. [Am Law Daily]

* “I have lost my faith in the potential for the Law School or its curriculum to put out people who care deeply about things.” Members of Harassment/Assault Law-School Team, a student group that advocates for sexual assault victims, aren’t impressed with Harvard Law’s inaction on educating students about sexual assault. [Harvard Crimson]

* How can we guarantee educators are being honest about graduates’ job prospects? Based on the results of the Corinthian Colleges fiasco and the Alaburda v. TJSL trial, it seems like “[s]trict disclosure rules for all schools would be better than lawsuits and government aid as a way to ensure educator honesty.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* An odd order? Perhaps in an attempt to avoid yet another 4-4 split in a controversial case, SCOTUS justices have ordered parties on both sides of the contraceptive coverage battle in Zubik to file briefs describing how such coverage could be provided without religious groups having to put forth much effort to formally object. [Associated Press]

* “It’s mind bogglingly obvious, but often gets lost in the mix. Apart from checking there aren’t any conflicts, clients are rarely put at the heart of these mergers.” Go figure, but according to a new report by professional services consultancy Gulland Padfield, law firm mergers usually don’t benefit clients in any way, shape, or form. [Am Law Daily]

* It seems that Russian cybercriminal “Oleras” has hired hackers to break into the computer systems of 48 Biglaw firms so he can collect confidential client data and then trade on the stolen insider information. Thus far, he’s been unsuccessful. Has your law firm been targeted? If you’d like to know, check the list here. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* The NFL is so pissed that the New York Times recently published a story linking the league to the tobacco industry that it not only wrote a two-part rebuttal that was more than 3000 words long, but it also sicced Paul Weiss attorneys on the paper of record in search of a retraction, claiming that the story was defamatory in nature. [Yahoo! Sports]

* “I will not go down. I want Bill Cosby in court.” A Los Angeles judge has ruled that model Janice Dickinson’s defamation case against Bill Cosby can move forward so that a jury can decide whether her allegations of rape are truthful, and further, whether a “liar” comment made by the comedian’s ex-lawyer, Marty Singer, was defamatory. [Telegram]

This holiday season, the Office of Personnel Management is giving you the gift of free identity theft monitoring. Yay?

* The Second Circuit has scheduled oral arguments in the NFL’s appeal of the Deflategate case for March 3. Roger Goodell is going to be pretty pissed off that Tom Brady can deflate his balls without being disturbed by legal issues until after Super Bowl 50. [Reuters]

* Corporate partner Pierre Boivin of McCarthy Tetrault, a Canadian Biglaw firm, was one of the hostages who survived the Mali terror attacks last Friday. According to the firm, his friends, family, and colleagues are “tremendously relieved” that he’s safe. [ABA Journal]

* LexisNexis purchased litigation analytics company Lex Machina for an undisclosed sum, but rumor has it that the company’s asking price was $30 to $35 million. Its co-founder says the deal came close to those numbers. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* Just in time for Black Friday online deals, a new Symantec report is out that says consumers are growing increasingly vulnerable to cybercrime. On that note, let’s get to know each other a little better. What’s your mother’s maiden name? [WSJ Law Blog]

* If you’re planning to take the LSAT in December and you still don’t have a game plan set out for how you’re going to manage your time while taking the test, you may have already screwed yourself. Best of luck! [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

The prosecution of a prominent activist and journalist raises very real and serious First Amendment concerns.

Kaspersky identifies that Darkhotel is a group of attackers that “seems to know in advance when these individuals will arrive and depart from their high-end hotels. So, the attackers lay in wait until these travelers arrive and connect to the Internet.”

A Russian cybercriminal allegedly “was a leader in the marketplace for stolen credit card numbers, and even created a website offering a tutorial on how to use stolen credit card numbers to commit crime.”

What's it like to work as a federal prosecutor focused on cybercrime?

Some simple, practical things you can do -- in 10 minutes -- to increase your security online.

Microsoft products are more spendy than the price tag on the box might suggest.