Law firm loses all data to Cryptolocker

I have warned against this, and it has finally happened – Cryptolocker hit a law firm. Goodson’s Law Firm was hit with Cryptolocker and lost all of their client data. Read more about that here: http://www.cio.com/article/747985/Cryptolocker_Scambles_U.S._Law_Firm_s_Entire_Cache_of_Legal_Files

Cryptolocker is a virus that encrypts all documents it sees on your computer and attached network drive. Once the data is encrypted, there is no getting it back unless you pay their ransom within 72 hours.

If you work in a firm where everyone saves data to a server, any person who downloads this virus could potentially infect the server. If all of your client data is stored on a server and it gets encrypted, you will lose all your data. That is exactly what happened to this North Carolina law firm. They may never be able to recover there data. Imagine trying to continue your cases if you lost all of your digital data. It would be nearly impossible.

As this law firm discovered, you once you are hit with the virus, it is too late. Chase Technology Consulting has power forensics and encryption cracking programs – but we cannot break the encryption of Cryptolocker. Once your data is encrypted by this virus, it is lost and we can not get it back. 

You must take steps to protect your data. Educate your staff on the dangers of viruses. Don’t let your staff use administrator accounts on their computer (this can help prevent the virus from running in the first place), and have backups! Backups a critical to any good computer system. 

Chase Technology Consulting offers security and technology evaluations for law firms. In these evaluations, we look at your current technology setup, find weaknesses in security and technology, and suggest a range of different option to improve your firm’s technology efficiency and security. Contact us today to schedule an evaluation.