Biglaw

Allen & Overy Hit By Ransomware Cyber Attack

The hackers threatened to publish the Biglaw firm's data unless it negotiates a price by November 28.

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hacker-g273d9ea81_1920Hot on the heels of the approval of its merger with Shearman & Sterling, Allen & Overy has been hit with some much less fortunate news. The top-ranked firm recently found itself the victim of a cyberattack, specifically, a “data incident impacting a small number of storage servers.”

According to Law.com International, LockBit was the perpetrator of the attack, and the ransomware group has threatened to publish the data it took from the firm on November 28, unless A&O “negotiates” — that is, unless the leading law firm is willing to pay, and the price could be steep.

If LockBit has asked for a figure, there are a range of perspectives on what that could look like. One partner at a top U.K. firm commented that, typically, with a firm of A&O’s size, hackers would identify between 2% and 3% of global turnover as a “starting point”.

In A&O’s case, that could mean a figure of between £42 million and £62 million [$51.5 million to $76 million].

As noted by Reuters, an A&O spokesperson says that the the firm has experienced “some disruption” as a result of the hack, but that operations are otherwise continuing normally. “As a matter of priority, we are assessing exactly what data has been impacted, and we are informing affected clients,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate that this is an important matter for our clients and we take this very seriously.”

How Bad is the Cyber Attack on Allen & Overy? [Law.com International]
Law firm Allen & Overy hit by ‘data incident’ [Reuters]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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