It all seemed so routine, so straightforward. The case was settled, with a $500,000 payment to be made to the approved settlement administrator. The law firm received an email from the administrator with wire transfer directions, and the settlement funds were sent per the instructions. Just one problem – the email didn’t come from the administrator, the receiving bank was not the right bank, and the half million dollars evaporated. Poof – gone in an instant.
Sure, it would’ve been prudent for the law firm to have picked up the phone and independently verified the email sender and instructions. But how did the bad guys know precisely when and to whom to send the phony email, and exactly what to say? Was it from publicly available information in the court file? Was there a rogue insider at the firm, or at one of the other litigant’s firms, or at the court, or with the settlement administrator? Or was someone’s email account illicitly monitored after being compromised by malware or through phished access credentials? Continue Reading Bad news on law firm data security
Sometimes one needs to zoom in to understand the big picture. This year we’ll continue to explore Information Governance, but through the lens of a particular industry segment – law firms – and a particular focus – data security.
How time flies. Seventeen years ago, I went to work for a small, visionary company based in Seattle—Computer Forensics, Inc. Indeed, the founder was so early in the e-discovery and forensics industry that our URL was forensics.com. Laptop drives typically had 8 GB of storage, and servers were more often than not simply a bigger box that sat in a closet.
Our firm’s elephant icon is a nod to 
It’s a common nightmare. As you toss and turn in bed, you picture yourself on a strange playing field with other athletes swirling around you. You have absolutely no idea what sport you are playing, nor a clue what the rules are. it’s not only embarrassing – it’s downright dangerous.
Facebook this week announced its new social media application targeted at children, 
It’s 4:20 p.m. on Friday. You’re looking forward to meeting your friends soon for happy hour at the local bar. Your boss is on vacation, and you’re caught up for the week. All is well. As you take one last look at your email, you see a message has just arrived from one of your suppliers – marked URGENT. The supplier is ranting about why you didn’t send payment for last month’s invoice to the right bank account. They’ve contacted your boss, who they say was irate at being disturbed while in Madrid on vacation, and who told them to contact you personally for immediate resolution. They helpfully provide the correct bank routing information and demand the payment be made today. Your authority for wire transfers ($1M) will easily cover the request for $250,000, with change. The invoice amount sounds about right, you know the supplier, your boss is already upset, it’s Friday, and so you wire the funds.
Tom Hanks excels at illuminating our nation’s history, from John Adams to Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, Bridge of Spies, Apollo 13, and Charlie Wilson’s War. Much of the impact springs from Hanks’ reverence for the primary source materials – the underlying records – that ground these compelling stories in the integrity of historical truth. So it was no surprise last month when the National Archives Foundation honored Hanks with 
We’re addicted to information, but we can’t stand to think about it again once we’ve seen it, saved it, hoarded it. Why? We collect or create it in the moment, but have no thought or plan for its future. Even when it was once and briefly useful, neglected information soon becomes the effluvium of our digital landfills. And, like most landfills, the odor is disagreeable and no one wants to be near it.