A popular law firm in New York, known for its work with multiple A-list celebrities, has been hacked.
According to BBC News, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks Law Firms’ official website has been hacked with the hackers retrieving 756 gigabytes of information.
Stolen information included data from everything, such as contracts to even personal emails.
The list of celebrities using this firm include Drake, Madonna, Lil Nas X, Lady GaGa, Sir Elton John, Barbara Streisand, The Weeknd, U2, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Priyanka Chopra, Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara, Sony Corp, LeBron James, Mike Tyson and more.
Per the outlet, the hackers have released a screenshot of pop sensation Madonna’s contract and are demanding payment. According to Cyber-security company Emsisoft, the contract for Madonna’s 2019-2020 World Tour has been uploaded.
“The hackers got into the system while everyone was focused on the coronavirus,” a source told NY Post. “We assume, but there is no confirmation, that the hackers are Eastern European. They are demanding a $21 million ransom, and the firm is not negotiating with them.”
The law firm has reached out to its clients, informing them of the situation at hand. They’ve begun taking steps to resolve the issue by working with cyber-security experts.
Brett Callow, a threat analysis at Emsisoft, has said incidents like these leave companies in a bad spot with “no good options.”
“Companies in this position have no good options available to them,” Callow said. “Non-payment of the demand will result in the information being published; payment will simply get them a pinky promise from criminals that the stolen data will be deleted. …These incidents are becoming increasingly commonplace and increasingly concerning. And incidents involving law firms are even more concerning due to the sensitivity of the data they hold.”
This type of issue has become common. Ransomware is seen as a huge issue in cyber-security and one of the biggest issues right now.
Ransomware is “malicious” software that allows hackers to encrypt data until a ransom is paid. Hackers use untraceable crypto-currency Bitcoin to protect their identity.
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