News Law Firms are Opening Bitcoin Wallets in Anticipation of Potential Ransomware Attacks
Ashour Iesho | Oct 27, 2017 | 21:00
With the recent rise of ransomware attacks targeting corporations worldwide, law firms are taking what many are deeming ‘appropriate’ preemptive security measures.
WannaCry 2.0
In the last couple of years, many corporations and businesses have been affected by ransomware, malware and other hacking attacks. This year hackers were able to successfully attack several big corporations and government agencies. In May 2017, hackers were able to infect hundreds of thousands of computers with an advanced malware called ‘WannaCry’. According to cybersecurity experts, the hackers were able to infect over 300,000 computers worldwide. The countries that were the most affected by the attacks were Russia, Taiwan, and Ukraine, however, the attack was also able to infect western countries.
In Germany, the biggest railway operator Deutsche Bank was also a victim of the WannaCry ransomware. The British National Health Service was also one of the major victims of the WannaCry ransomware. WannaCry was able to slip into computers through phishing attacks and malicious files that users downloaded. The advanced ransomware is able to completely encrypt the hard drives of the computer that it infects. After the ransomware successfully encrypts the hard drives and all files, it will ask the victim to pay a ransom in Bitcoin in order to decrypt the hard drive and make accessible again for the victim. IT experts are warning users not to pay the ransom since there is no guarantee that the hard drive will actually decrypt after the ransom was paid.
Prepared for the Worst but Hoping for the Best
After the devasting WannaCry attack, many corporations and government agencies took major steps in order to upgrade their cybersecurity infrastructure. According to a recent article by Business Insider, several law firms are preemptively preparing for such attacks by opening up Bitcoin wallets.
The president of cybersecurity and IT of LogicForce, John Sweeny, stated that LogicForce will soon open a Bitcoin wallet, in case they become victims of ransomware. Sweeny also stated following regarding the whole situation:
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,
IT experts are advising big corporations and government agencies to invest more in cybersecurity and be more careful with the software that they install in their networks.
What are your thoughts on the WannaCry attack? Do you think that more law firms should open Bitcoin wallets in order to pay the ransom on time? Let us know in the comments below!
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