Prolific cybercriminal target magic circle firm
Magic circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) has been targeted by ransomware hackers by a well-known cybercriminal group.
The firm was added to LockBit’s victim list on Wednesday according to a post on X (formally Twitter), with a threat to publish its data on 28 November.
In a joint advisory by several nations’ security forces including the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), LockBit was named as the most deployed ransomware variant across the world last year and warned to be “prolific” this year.
According to the Financial Times, A&O confirmed it had “experienced a cyber security incident impacting a small number of storage servers.”
It added: “Investigations to date have confirmed that data in our core systems, including our email and document management system, has not been affected. As a matter of priority, we are assessing exactly what data has been impacted, and we are informing affected clients.”
A&O was in the news this year for being part of one of the biggest legal mergers in recent history as it was confirmed to be merging with US firm Shearman & Sterling. The merger will see nearly 4,000 lawyers and 800 partners across 48 offices come together with combined revenues of approximately $3.5bn.
The firm is the latest business to be targeted by cyber attacks, In March WH Smith was hit by a cyber attack that has resulted in hackers gaining access to private company data.
Additionally, two months prior, retailer JD Sports was targeted, resulting in around 10 million people potentially having their addresses, phone numbers and email addresses among other things stolen.