Law firms Baker McKenzie, Squire Patton Boggs sued over cyber breaches
By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Prominent law firms Squire Patton Boggs and Baker McKenzie have been hit with proposed class actions in US federal court by plaintiffs who say cyberattacks exposed sensitive personal information that the firms had collected and stored.
Here are the details:
The lawsuit against Baker McKenzie, one of the world’s largest law firms, was filed in federal court in Illinois on Wednesday. The complaint targeting Squire Patton was lodged in federal court in Ohio.
Baker McKenzie last week disclosed to state regulators that the firm suffered a data security incident in August. The firm said a cybercriminal “socially engineered two of our users” to obtain a limited number of files but that “there was no independent malicious access to our system."
Squire Patton Boggs in October disclosed a breach to state regulators that it said involved "an unauthorized third party obtaining a limited set of information from the firm."
The law firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Law firms hold corporate client communications, merger and acquisition details, intellectual property and government and financial records, making them attractive to hackers.
New research by the cyber consulting firm CrowdStrike shows that data breaches involving law firms and other legal industry entities have doubled since 2023. Several other firms in recent months have been hit with proposed class actions following a data breach.
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