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Law Firms and the Scourge of Ransomware: How to Prevent, Detect, Respond and Recover

BitDefender’s Mid-Year Threat Landscape Report 2020 showed that ransomware attacks were seven times more prevalent in the first half of 2020 compared to the first half of 2019. Today’s ransomware often steals your confidential data before its encryption. Frequently, we now see two ransoms demanded, one for the decryption key and one for a promise (because cybercriminals are so honorable) to destroy your data. Many law firms are paying, sometimes because they have cyberinsurance and paying is cheaper than being inoperative for an extended period of time.

How do law firms get ransomware? How can they defend against it? If stricken, how should they handle the attack? Should you pay the ransomware? Is it illegal to pay the ransomware? Spoiler alert: Sometimes it is. How do you recover from a ransomware attack? Our experts will offer chilling stories of law firms crippled by ransomware along with tips for defending against and responding to ransomware.

This program qualifies as 1.0 MCLE credit hour. 

SC Supreme Court Commission Course # 214336ADO.

Speakers:

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., is the President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., is a nationally-known digital forensics, managed information technology provider and managed cybersecurity firm in Fairfax, Virginia.   

Ms. Nelson is the author of the noted electronic evidence blog, Ride the Lightning and is a co-host of the Legal Talk Network podcast series called “The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology” as well as “Digital Detectives.”

She is a frequent author (eighteen books published by the ABA and hundreds of articles) and speaker on legal technology, cybersecurity and electronic evidence topics. She was the President of the Virginia State Bar June 2013 – June 2014 and a past President of the Fairfax Law Foundation, and the Fairfax Bar Association.

She may be reached at snelson@senseient.com

John W. Simek

Mr. Simek is the Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., is a nationally-known digital forensics, managed information technology provider and managed cybersecurity firm located in Fairfax, Virginia.

Mr. Simek has a national reputation as a digital forensics technologist and has testified as an expert witness throughout the United States. He holds a degree in engineering from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and an MBA in finance from Saint Joseph’s University.

Mr. Simek holds the prestigious CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and the CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) certifications in addition to multiple other technical certifications. He is a past chair of ABA TECHSHOW and a co-host of the Legal Talk Network podcast Digital Detectives. He is a frequent author (eighteen books published by the ABA and hundreds of articles) and speaker on legal technology, cybersecurity and electronic evidence topics.

He may be reached at jsimek@senseient.com.

David G. Ries

David G. Ries is of counsel in the Pittsburgh, PA office of Clark Hill PLC, where he practices in the areas of technology, data protection, and environmental law and litigation. For over 25 years, he has increasingly focused on cybersecurity, privacy, and information governance. He has used computers in his practice since the early 1980s and since then has strongly encouraged attorneys to embrace technology – in appropriate and secure ways.

Dave frequently speaks and writes nationally on legal ethics, technology, and technology law topics. He is a coauthor of Locked Down: Practical Information Security for Lawyers, Second Ed. (ABA 2016) and Encryption Made Simple for Lawyers (ABA 2015) and a contributing author to Information Security and Privacy: A Legal, Business and Technical Handbook, Second Edition (American Bar Association 2011). He served on the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board from 2005 through 2008 and is a member of the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, InfraGard’s Legal Cross-Sector Council, and ILTA’s LegalSEC.