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Cyber Security

Attacks can threaten entire firms due to the significant reputational damage and regulatory risk involved.

Cyber attacks against businesses of all sizes are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated and seeking legal advice at an early stage can protect relevant internal communications with legal privilege. Attacks can threaten entire firms due to the significant reputational damage and regulatory risk involved.

With vast experience in dealing with complex data breaches, our specialist team provides breach management and incident response services to affected organisations. We assist organisations in developing appropriate cybersecurity policies to help assess weaknesses and susceptibility to cyber threats. We provide a co-ordinated, multi-disciplinary and strategic approach to ensure the most effective, efficient and customer focused response plan is implemented to suit business needs.

Responding effectively to a cyber attack or security breach ultimately requires an appropriate level of preparation. Businesses must plan in advance how they will deal with a data breach or similar incident in order to minimise and manage this key business risk for all organisations.

Protecting your reputation with legal professional privilege. Click here to read more.

John O’Connor

Partner

Leo Moore

Partner

David Cullen

Partner

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Experience

Reputational challenges can strike any business at any time and the consequences of unsuccessfully dealing with these challenges can be severe and can potentially lead to the total and irreversible destruction of the business’ value. When a reputational crisis does strike management will very often be required to deal with critical reputational issues of which they have no prior experience. We have helped many of our clients prepare for and successfully navigate these challenges and whatever the reputational challenge our clients face we have the skills and experience to help.

The following are examples of our recent work:

Acting for a major financial institution in connection with the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry
Providing advice to various current and former executives of regulated financial institutions in connection with appearances at public hearings of Oireachtas Committees
Advising numerous clients on litigation readiness techniques such as the development and implementation of systems for the preservation and subsequent identification, collation and reproduction of large volumes of sensitive confidential data
Acting for a large professional services firm who suffered substantial financial loss as a result of the fraudulent activities of an employee of a firm engaged by our client to provide property services
Advising various regulated financial service providers on inspections, investigations and enforcement actions by the Central Bank of Ireland
Advising various public companies in connection with investigations by the Takeover Panel
Advising various clients in connection with audits and actions by the Data Protection Commissioner
Establishing and operating a highly confidential internal investigation into alleged criminal staff misconduct on behalf of a global software provider which involved the carrying out of sensitive interviews, the provision of advice in relation to disciplinary actions against senior employees and compliance with statutory law enforcement notification requirements
Advising private clients in connection with two separate cartel investigations by the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (formerly the Competition Authority)
Acting for various clients in relation to defamation proceedings
Acting in the first case to consider the law in Ireland relating to privacy, which is regarded as a seminal decision.

Areas of Expertise

Complex data breaches
Breach management
Incident response services
Cybersecurity policies
Response planning

Case Study

We successfully assisted a client in retrieving a very significant payment that was hijacked as part of a cyber breach. The hackers infiltrated the email account of a senior finance officer and intercepted a payment request on the company’s headed paper. They then successfully redirected the payment to an international bank account. We assisted the company with actioning and analysing the outcome of its cyber response including notifying the Irish police force, international police, the relevant banks and insurers. We then managed the client’s legal response including advising on:

notification strategy with the data protection authorities and managing the investigation
communications with those impacted by the breach
internal reporting and liaising with forensic security consultants

At the same time we assisted the client in devising and executing a combined legal and commercial strategy to actively pursue the retrieval of the money. This strategy ultimately resulted in our client retrieving the vast majority of the hacked sum.

Related Areas

Reputation Risk Management

Adverse Media Coverage

Brand, IP & Confidential Information

Product Recall