cyber attack

Data ProtectionOver the past few years, there has been an increasing number of claims against businesses and public bodies for distress caused by data breaches. The pattern is, by now, a familiar one. A claimant will make a claim for breach of data protection legislation, seeking damages at a relatively low value for the distress and anxiety they say has been caused by the data breach. This claim will be accompanied by claims for one or more of: misuse of private information, breach of confidence and negligence. Added on to the damages claimed will be the legal costs of the claimant’s lawyers, together with the after-the-event (“ATE”) insurance premium for the policy the claimant will have procured to bring a privacy claim. As a result, the defendant is faced with a difficult decision – pay over the odds for a claim where the claimant has suffered no financial loss, or fight litigation with the risk of mounting costs on both sides if the decision goes against them.

Following a cyber-attack in 2017 and 2018, this is the situation that faced DSG Retail Limited (“DSG”), and which has led to an important judgment for these data breach claims, Warren v DSG Retail Ltd [2021] EWHC 2168 (QB).
Continue Reading Narrowing the Scope of Data Breach Claims? – Warren v DSG Retail Ltd

I was recently helping a client in Tokyo respond to a serious and sophisticated cyber breach where hackers executed a transfer of nearly US$1M out of the client’s Hong Kong bank account. In this instance, the hackers had hacked into the CEO’s cloud-based corporate e-mail account and had determined a way to create a transaction that his intermediary company believed to be genuine. The hackers sat on top of the e-mail to intercept any queries and assure colleagues that this was an authorized transfer. The transaction was made on a Friday, in the hopes that it would not be noticed until the following week. Indeed, our client only realized that the transaction had happened on the following Monday, when he received by mail hard copies of the transfer documents from his intermediaries.

In these types of situations, it is essential to act quickly and to focus on the efforts most likely to bear fruit. But what to do when every second that passes makes it more likely that the funds have been transferred to other accounts in other jurisdictions?

Here are some critical things to consider, with many of these actions needing to occur concurrently:Continue Reading Executive Hacks and What To Do