When reporting Google’s announcement earlier in the week that it would no longer censor its results in China for a number of reasons including the fact that large international companies? had received cyber attacks emanating from the PRC we warned that law firms would also be targets.
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Although we were thinking of firms working in China and HK it’s interesting to see this report on aol.com..
LA law firm says it was target of cyber attacks
January 15, 2010
The law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software says it has been the target of cyber attacks from within China.
Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione says its attorneys received emails starting Monday containing Trojans, which can allow outside access to the target’s computer. It hasn’t been determined if the attacks were successful.
The firm filed a $2.2 billion federal lawsuit last week on behalf of Cybersitter LLC, alleging the Chinese copied its codes and incorporated them into censorware used to block Chinese citizens’ access to sites deemed politically undesirable by the government.
Old Warrior
What we would like to know is which major international law firm will be brave enough to admit that it’s security has been targeted? by Chinese cyber warriors..
New Warrior
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See also this report in? ZD Net Asia
US law firm behind China piracy suit targeted in attacks
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62060518,00.htm
Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:33 AM
A U.S. law firm representing a Web content-filtering company in a piracy lawsuit against the Chinese government said on Wednesday that it received malicious e-mail messages in a targeted attack from China similar to recent attacks on Google and other U.S. companies.
At least 10 employees at Gipson Hoffman & Pancione received the e-mail messages on Monday and Tuesday, according to Gregory Fayer, a lawyer at the Los Angeles-based firm.
The firm filed a US$2.2 billion lawsuit last week on behalf of Solid Oak Software against the Chinese government, two Chinese software developers, and seven PC manufacturers. The suit alleges that they illegally copied code from Solid Oak’s Cybersitter Web content-filtering program and distributed the code as part of a Chinese government-sponsored censorship program involving China-created Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software.
The e-mail sent to the law firm, mostly to lawyers, came in three different formats, were made to look like they came from Fayer or one of two other lawyers at the firm, and had attachments or included links to outside Web sites, Fayer said. Some of the content of the messages expressed concern over viruses and other potential security issues, while another gave a link to an FTP site where large files could be downloaded, he said.
Fayer said he could not say what format the attachments were in or what malware was hiding inside other than that it was a Trojan horse.
