Ride the Lightning

Bermuda Law Firm Hacked: Another Set of Revelations Reminiscent of the Panama Papers?

October 26, 2017

The Register reported on October 25^th that the major offshore Bermuda-based law firm Appleby had admitted that it was hacked. This promptly gave rise to fears that there would be revelations into the tax affairs of the law firm's wealthy clients.

Appleby admitted it had suffered the breach, which happened last year, only when a group of journalists from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who had seen the leaked information, began asking questions.

In a statement, which is worth reading in its entirety, Appleby denied allegations of any tax evasions or other wrongdoing by itself or its clients while admitting that it was "not infallible." It added, "Where we find that mistakes have happened we act quickly to put things right and we make the necessary notifications to the relevant authorities."

The law firm went on to state that it had increased its security since the hack. "We are committed to protecting our clients' data and we have reviewed our cyber security and data access arrangements following a data security incident last year which involved some of our data being compromised. These arrangements were reviewed and tested by a leading IT Forensics team and we are confident that our data integrity is secure."

The Daily Telegraph reported that the leak involved some of Britain's wealthiest people, who were said to be consulting lawyers and public relations executives preparing for possible fallout from the hack.

Appleby employs 470 staffers and operates from 10 offices across the world. It has stated that it offers services to global public and private companies, financial institutions as well as "high net worth individuals."

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