Aussie law firm slaps hackers with injunction | Information Age

Law firm HWL Ebsworth allegedly had 4TB of data stolen. Photo: Shutterstock

An influential Australian law firm is attempting to use the long arm of the law to stop hackers from publishing its stolen information and block media from publishing leaked data.

The attackers – Russian outfit known as Black Cat or AlphV – revealed it had stolen four terabytes of data from law firm HWL Ebsworth in April by publishing a Tweet stating that the firm had been added to its victim list.

According to media reports, the firm works for the Reserve Bank of Australia, Qatar Airlines and a number of government organisations.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that news of a potential hack sent shockwaves through the nation’s legal fraternity, and that attackers were claiming to have posted some of the data on the dark web.

It is not known whether the firm had received a ransom note.

HWL Ebsworth this week managed to obtain an injunction from the Supreme Court of NSW in an attempt to legally prevent hackers from disclosing its stolen information.

The injunction will also prevent media from reporting any details about the data.

Svenson Barristers senior silk Rodney Barrett KC says the victim of stolen information may have a case to prevent its publication by the media injunction.

“Conceivably, it may even be unconscionable for the media to publish stolen information that is not confidential. All will depend on the circumstances of the case.”

However, the injunction to block cyber hackers has been dubbed ‘futile’ by Professor and Associate Dean (Computer and Security) in the School of Science, Paul Haskell-Dowland.

“A criminal group that engages in illegal acts to obtain confidential data that they then go on to ransom is not likely to be deterred by such action – they already know what they are doing is illegal,” Professor Haskell-Dowland told Information Age.

Some smaller, less experienced criminal groups may be influenced by threats of legal action, but most will shrug off the risks and may even react more aggressively and publish stolen data more readily to ‘teach them a lesson’, he says.

“The idea that the injunction will ‘prevent’ the criminals from posting…