back to article Ransomware-hit law firm secures High Court judgment against unknown criminals

The London law firm which secured a court injunction forbidding ransomware criminals from publishing data stolen from them has now gone a step further – by securing a default judgment from the High Court. 4 New Square Ltd, a barristers' chambers, raised some amusement in cyber security circles in July when it applied for a …

  1. FILE_ID.DIZ
    Happy

    Nail, meet hammer!

    I guess it is true... when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

    1. Dr Who

      Re: Nail, meet hammer!

      Exactly what I was thinking. It's like someone trying to shoot down the Death Star with a shotgun.

      1. b0llchit Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Nail, meet hammer!

        You only need to shoot down the vent. And, as lawyers, they must have the bullet force on their side. Therefore, problem solved... Solved I say!

  2. IGotOut Silver badge

    Sigh...

    "hostile foreign country, possibly Russia or another ex-Soviet Union nation"

    The 1950s called, they want their propogander back.

    1. Majack

      Re: Sigh...

      The were no ex-soviet union nations in the 1950s, maybe if you tied a history book to your knees, the weight will make it less likely that you will hit your own face.

      1. Jan 0 Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: Sigh...

        > The were no ex-soviet union nations in the 1950s

        Nobody said there were!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Headmaster

        Re: Sigh...

        Except the Soviet Zone of Austria. The Russians pulled out of there in May 1955.

        They kept all the other countries that they "liberated" - Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Soviet zone of Germany - etc at the end of the Second World War.

    2. Cav Bronze badge

      Re: Sigh...

      What is "propogander"?

      How deluded do you have to be to believe that true enemies of the West do not engage in these actions? No doubt you'd rather believe your own government guilty? You have no clue about the realities of the world.

      1. parlei Bronze badge

        Re: Sigh...

        Propagander: propane fueled gander

        1. Dr Who

          Re: Sigh...

          Propagander : have a good look

      2. sabroni Silver badge

        Re: You have no clue about the realities of the world.

        How clueless do you have to be to think that the goverment of the country you live in gives two shits about you if you're not super rich?

        Inventing external enemies is a great way of turning focus away from terrible domestic policy. Notice that we're not discussing taxing the poor so the rich can keep their inheritances.

    3. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Sigh...

      Have a proper gander at a dictionary to work out the correct way to spell propaganda.

      Or do you think that dictionaries are some form of government-sponsored mind control?

    4. Gordon 10
      WTF?

      Re: Sigh...

      Im confused. Isn't propogander a crutch for an injured male goose?

      1. Snowy Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: Sigh...

        No it is a company that sells prop male geese.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Law firms and security

    Maybe they should look at their own information security procedures with as much energy as they put into this court action?

    I purchased a used Dell PC off of Ebay a while back. In the DVD drive was a disc with 4+ gigabytes of some law firm's case files going back several years! Morons!

    I of course destroyed the disc. I thought about contacting the firm, and offering to mail the disc back to them, but then remembered these are lawyers we are talking about.

    1. Andy Non Silver badge

      Re: Law firms and security

      Wise decision, as you'd have probably ended up being sued or otherwise in court. Let no good deed go unpunished.

    2. sabroni Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Law firms and security

      Cool story bro!

  4. Dr Paul Taylor

    Canute

    So, if this law firm were about to be flooded or burned down, would they deal with the problem by getting a court order against the water or fire?

    On the other hand it is interesting legally if it sets a precedent that "papers" can be served by email.

    In other news, apparently handing them to PC Plod guarding the respondent's home is not good enough.

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: Canute

      ...getting a court order against the water or fire?

      Sounds reasonable if you can couple it with an earthly organisation. Wasn't there a (fictional) case about taking the church to court when a catastrophe was classified as "an act of God" and the church, as worldly representatives of God, should therefore be held accountable?

      1. orphic

        Re: Canute

        Sounds about right either they can be sued for "Acts of God" or they've been fraudulently misrepresenting themselves, to all and sundry, as God's representatives on earth.

    2. Robert Helpmann??

      Re: Canute

      On the other hand it is interesting legally if it sets a precedent that "papers" can be served by email.

      Perhaps in this jurisdiction, but in others, divorce may be handled via text.

  5. a_yank_lurker

    Real Solution

    The only real solution is make the penalty worldwide for ransomware rather blood thirsty. There should be 'no cruel and unusual punishment' for these scum as even attacking someone not explicitly infrastructure or medical could have spill over effects on those organizations possibly resulting in death.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Actually

    Anyone found with or attempting to sell the data already has a court injunction against them making holding the data the same as stealing it, which is also in line with UK law. Somebody buys this data and they too will have to prove that they are not the people the injuction applies to by giving up the seller.

    For me this suggests that what was taken has implications to someone they represent within the UK and anyone now holding this data is deemed to have an injunction against Thus any media outlet that obtained the data would again have to prove who they got it from even if it was posted in anonymously or risk having to prove they didn't hack in themselves.

    Interesting, effective this ruling means that possession of the data means you are now automatically guilty of stealing it, also in line with current UK laws

    1. NonSSL-Login

      Re: Actually

      That may be the case but....all that will happen is the hackers will post the data publicly as a result of the court action which shows that this company does not intend to pay.

      We can argue that might have happened without the court case anyway so this company is one up but what are they going to achieve by punishing one person they may catch with the data further down the line of the hundreds, if not thousands who will have their hands on it.

    2. TiredNConfused80

      Re: Actually

      Would this mean that if port of the information showed that Famous Person A was doing "a bad thing" it would now be illeagal for news papers etc from publishing it? That might be the reason for the case?

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "the High Court ruled in the firm's favour by default"

    I'm sure the Russian hackers are quaking in their boots.

  8. Nursing A Semi
    Stop

    Basically

    As close to a super injunction as they can get, obviously details of cases involving B list celebs in that data and they don't want the UK press to be able to publish.

  9. sanmigueelbeer
    WTF?

    Stay tuned to our next instalment: Revenge of the Hackers.

  10. DaemonProcess

    Mareva order

    There used to be something called a Mareva order to freeze assets anywhere in the world that does accept UK high court judgements. So with a judgement under their belt the solicitors may be able to trace the hacker's money to an offshore location and seize it - or even attempt to seize an entire global blockchain of crypto currency if the hackers use that (probably). It would be fun to watch them try especially with a de-centralised project - 'all your mining and validator nodes belong to us now, that's 2 trillion usd' and you have to stop them all from transacting and rewind everything to yesterday morning when the order was signed. Not mathematically possible.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Al Capone

    Never forget, Al Capone was done for tax avoidance, not for being a gangster. The injunction may seem pointless - but incremental actions that make life harder for crooks have value. Apart from anything else it can open doors to legal remedies, civil action etc., where the authorities are powerless to act.

  12. Snowy Silver badge
    Joke

    That is ageing solved

    Just get a high court injunction forbidding it and done!

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like