Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
International Law Firm Data Breached Via Vendor's Server
March 24, 2014
Hat tip to our friend Tina Ayiotis!
It was reported on March 21st that the international law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge notified the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on February 26th that 441 current and former employees’ W-2 information and other information had been compromised when a vendor’s database was accessed by someone who was able to acquire a client’s login credentials. The Office of Inadequate Security blog quoted from a notification the firm sent to current and former employees:
"As a result of that investigation and further information provided by the vendor, it appears that some information related to current and former employees was accessed on November 28, 2013 (Thanksgiving Day), December 11, 2013, and December 12, 2013 and that such access was obtained through the malicious and unauthorized access to the user identification and password of an account administrator. MLA has since reset all passwords for each user and asked all users to establish a new password. We are also working with our vendor to ensure that this does not occur again.
Regrettably, our investigation appears to show that your personal information was accessed without authorization during this incident, including Federal Wage and Tax Statement Form W-2 name, address, wages, taxes and Social Security number information; date of birth, age, gender, ethnicity; and Visa, Passport or Federal Form I 9 documents numbers."
Those affected were offered a year of free credit monitoring with Experian ProtectMyID.
I admire the firm for its transparency in reporting the data breach, thereby abiding by state law and its ethical duties.
Listen to the Podcast
