NYT: Top U.S. lawyers report cyberattacks by Chinese hackers
One of the most famous US law firms, Williams & Connolly, has informed clients that Chinese hackers have penetrated some of its computer systems. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident. The New York Times reported this n , citing two people with knowledge of the situation.
"During the incident, a small number of Williams & Connolly attorney email accounts were obtained through a so-called zero-day attack," the firm said in a statement.
Williams & Connolly has a reputation for being aggressive in fighting the government, representing prominent American politicians, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton.
It was the first law firm to represent another law firm against which Trump used a punitive executive order as part of his campaign against firms he believed were acting against him legally and politically.
Unnamed sources claim that China is behind the attack on Williams & Connoll, which seeks to attack the work of American law firms.
According to one of the publication's informed sources, the FBI field office in Washington is investigating this and similar attacks carried out by the same Chinese hackers. The hackers are suspected of hacking into the networks of more than a dozen other law firms and technology companies in recent months.
The company said it has taken steps to block the attacker and there is no evidence of any unauthorized traffic on its network at this time.
"Importantly, there is no evidence that confidential client data was removed from any other part of our IT system, including the databases where client files are stored," Williams & Connolly said in a statement .
In September, cybersecurity company Mandiant said that Chinese hackers had been involved in a multi-year espionage campaign aimed at exploiting so-called "zero-day vulnerabilities" in computer networks to gather intelligence from law firms.
Following the cyberattack, Williams & Connolly partnered with cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to deal with the consequences of the hacker attack.
"According to the firm's investigation, conducted in conjunction with CrowdStrike cyber experts, the attacker is believed to be affiliated with a government agency responsible for recent attacks on a number of law firms and companies," the firm said in a statement .
- on July 23, Chinese-linked cybercriminals attacked the National Nuclear Security Administration of the United States Department of Energy. Systems belonging to the U.S. Department of Education, the Florida Department of Revenue, and some other institutions were also cyberattacked.
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