CryptoAUSTRALIA are running a series of free events in Sydney explicitly designed to address the cybersecurity challenges faced by legal professionals.

Australia is the second most popular target in the world for email fraud with the legal profession being one the most significant targets by cybercriminals. Both the NSW Law Society and the Queensland Law Society issued scam alerts last year to its members. They warned of firms which had been defrauded and the growing number of cyberattacks explicitly targeting Australian legal firms. With 73% of legal firms in Australia being sole practitioners, there is an enormous need for educating the legal profession in cybersecurity best practice. A growing number of cybercriminals target the profession way too often with cyber attacks including payment redirection fraud (affecting trust accounts) and ransomware.

Talking to lawyers about cybersecurity is like talking to millennials about superannuation, but CryptoAUSTRALIA is here to help! We are running a six-part series of events in Sydney in which we promise to give practitioners advice which is practical, relevant and easy to understand. Whether you are a solicitor in a top-tier firm or the PLT student working at a suburban practice we will have relevant advice to help prevent you and your firm from becoming cybercrime victims.

CryptoAUSTRALIA believes it can do better than the common advice often given to legal professionals – which is usually inadequate, vague and sometimes just simply wrong. Therefore, CryptoAUSTRALIA has recruited top cybersecurity experts to develop this course, including Jeremiah Cruz (also a professional tutor), Nicholas Kavadias (also a practicing lawyer) and Gabor Szathmari (also an anti-phishing expert) to create a six-part event series focused on helping the legal professional protect themselves from payment scams, hacking, data theft, data loss, phishing, malware, viruses and ransomware.

Our first talk is titled ‘How to protect your law firm and your clients from money transfer scams’. We look at how and why these fraudulent schemes work and what practical actions legal professionals can do to defend themselves.

The details and RSVP of our first event are available on Meetup and Eventbrite.

And there will be more events to come! Here is a quick outline of what we have planned (event dates are yet to be confirmed):

Advice on preventing data breaches at law firms

How to secure your files and what you should be asking for from your IT provider

Managing sensitive client data in a responsible manner

Good cybersecurity hygiene for your legal practice

Practical advice on protecting client-legal privilege in the digital world

We hope to see you at our events soon. Please sign up to our newsletter to never miss the latest news and updates on these events.

If your legal firm is interested in sponsoring these events, please contact Gabor for more information. For any questions or queries, please contact us at [email protected].

Update (9/7/2018): Our second event is now live on Eventbrite. Secure your seat now to avoid any disappointment.

Update (19/07/2018): Our first course How to Protect Your Legal Practice from Payment Redirection Fraud is now available online.

CryptoAUSTRALIA, a not for profit organisation which runs digital privacy and security seminars, lectures and workshops in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.