Leading Law firm Seyfarth Shaw discloses ransomware attack

Seyfarth Shaw, one of the leading global legal firms announced that it was a victim of an “aggressive malware” attack, likely a ransomware attack.

Seyfarth Shaw LLP is an international AmLaw 100 law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, its clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and its practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the economy.

Seyfarth Shaw announced it was the victim of an “aggressive malware” attack, but the media immediately reported a ransomware infection later confirmed by the firm.

According to a statement published by the company, the attack took place on October 10, 2020.

“On October 10, 2020, Seyfarth was the victim of a sophisticated and aggressive malware attack. At this time, our email system remains down.” reads the statement published by the company.

“We understand that a number of other entities were simultaneously hit with this same attack. Our monitoring systems detected the unauthorized activity, and our IT team acted quickly to prevent its spread and protect our systems.”

The firm confirmed that many of its systems were encrypted and it is not aware of unauthorized access to its client or firm data,

“We have found no evidence that any of our client or firm data were accessed or removed.” continues the statement. “However, many of our systems were encrypted, and we have shut them down as a precautionary measure.”

The company notified law enforcement and it is supporting the investigation conducted by the FBI.

The firm added that an undisclosed number of companies was hit “simultaneously” by the same threat actors.

At the time of this post, the law firm did not disclose details about the attack, it is not clear the family of ransomware that hit the company and the extent of the security incident.

In the past other law firms suffered ransomware attacks, sometimes with dramatic consequences for their business like the Mossack Fonseca case.

In May, the Sodinokibi ransomware gang has stolen gigabytes of legal documents from the law firm of the stars, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks (GSMLaw). In June 2017, the global law firm DLA Piper experienced severe issues at its systems after a ransomware attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Seyfarth Shaw)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.