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Rather than wait until it's too late, Law firms open bitcoin portfolios to pay ransoms in case their data is stolen, according to a cybersecurity expert.
John Sweeney, president of LogicForce, IT advisor and cybersecurity, said law firms take proactive rather than reactive measures. However, although he does not necessarily agree with the paying ransoms, he said it was "logical" to be ready, reports Business Insider.
This year saw several data breaches where hackers asked for ransoms to pay in bitcoin. At the beginning of the year, an Austrian hotel was sentenced to pay a bitcoin ransom for finding access to its rooms; in May, the movie Disney's Pirates was held for ransom by hackers; and in June, a South Korean company paid a bitcoin ransom of a million dollars in order to recover its data.
Unsurprisingly, South Korea's Financial Supervision Department asked local banks not to give in to the threats of DDoS attackers, following the ransom of a million dollars paid by the South company -coréenne.
Yet, while countless individuals have paid ransom demands to hackers for access to their files, this is not always the case. An example is the NotPetya hack, which took place this summer. Even though the victims paid ransom, it was reported that it was unlikely that they had received the decryption keys to access their files.
Sweeney believes, however, that businesses must do more to protect themselves. According to him, the chances that the hacker is captured are slim and the likelihood of him being prosecuted is even lower.
He said:
We expect that there will be more sophisticated attempts to intrude into companies that work with highly visible customers whose IP or commercial information is extremely valuable.
LogicForce will open its own bitcoin account in the coming weeks to facilitate customer disaster recovery.
Image from Shutterstock.