1.2 terabytes of data stolen from Pearl Cohen law firm: Hackers demand ransom, firm refuses
1.2 terabytes of data stolen from Pearl Cohen law firm: Hackers demand ransom, firm refuses
Israeli law firm falls victim to a cyberattack by BianLian but stands firm against ransom threats, ensuring ongoing operations are unaffected.
The Pearl Cohen law firm, one of Israel's leading firms in the field of intellectual property and patents, experienced a cyber breach last month, during which a substantial amount of information was stolen. The full scope and significance of the breach are currently being investigated by the firm.
The attack, which occurred approximately three weeks ago, was allegedly carried out by a foreign hacker group known as BianLian, a group notorious for infiltrating organizations and stealing information for ransom purposes. The hackers reportedly succeeded in breaching the firm's drive, which includes sensitive data from its international operations, and stole a large volume of information.
BianLian has claimed responsibility for the breach, announcing that they obtained around 1.2 terabytes of data. According to the group, this data includes client information, employee details, technical and business data, email correspondence, and more. Following the attack, the hackers attempted to extort Pearl Cohen by demanding a ransom, but the firm refused to comply and has no intention of paying.
The firm emphasized that its operations were never disrupted, and it immediately engaged a cybersecurity firm specializing in incident response and forensic investigation to identify the source of the breach. It was determined that this was an isolated event, confined to a single system, and did not extend to other parts of the firm's infrastructure. Furthermore, the stolen information was neither encrypted nor locked, meaning the firm's ongoing work was unaffected. Pearl Cohen also stated that the actual amount of stolen data appears to be smaller than the hackers claimed, with much of it consisting of outdated or publicly available information.
Pearl Cohen employs about 320 people across its offices in Israel, the U.S., and the U.K., including approximately 180 lawyers and interns. This places the firm 13th in the ranking of Israel's largest law firms, according to Dun & Bradstreet.
It is worth noting that in May of this year, Israel's largest law firm, Goldfarb Gross Seligman, also suffered a cyber breach. In that case, hackers were suspected of leaking sensitive information, including thousands of email correspondences with clients, sparking an investigation.
Pearl Cohen issued a statement in response to the breach: "A sophisticated group of hackers gained access to a single drive within the firm. Our document management and email systems were not compromised. Upon discovering the breach, we immediately initiated our incident response procedure, working closely with external experts from the leading cybersecurity firm Profero. The breach was contained quickly, and all systems were thoroughly checked for any unauthorized access. It should be noted that the affected drive mostly contained outdated documents. Our security systems ensured that the firm’s operations remained unaffected. The Privacy Protection Authority was updated."
