The firm did everything right—or so it thought. After three years of litigation, countless depositions, and hard-fought mediation, the case closed with a $10 million settlement. Relief spread through the office. The firm scheduled the funds to be wired. Clients were notified. Celebration emails circulated.
Then, silence.
A single email, perfectly timed and perfectly worded, updated the wiring instructions. Alarms never sounded. Systems continued to operate. Files remained accessible. But the money just vanished.
The post-mortem revealed a Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack. The attacker had been inside the firm’s email system for weeks, quietly observing billing cycles, settlement workflows, and approval patterns. This wasn’t a smash-and-grab cybercrime. This was patient, targeted, and devastating.
This is the new reality for plaintiff law firms. You are no longer collateral damage. You are Tier 1 targets. Not because of your technology, but because of what you hold: settlement funds, medical records, testimony, and leverage.
Locking down files is no longer enough. Attackers in today’s threat environment don’t need to steal data to cause damage. They only need to threaten its exposure. Under Extortion 3.0, sensitive client information becomes leverage, turning privacy, reputation, and trust into bargaining chips.
In this environment, cybersecurity is more than an IT expense. It is a fiduciary duty, a risk management imperative, and increasingly, a competitive advantage in settlement negotiations. Your reputation and client trust depend on it!
The threat environment facing plaintiff law firms has evolved faster than most internal policies can keep up with—and faster than many firms realize.
AI-enhanced phishing is now the dominant entry point. Attackers routinely deploy deepfake audio and video to impersonate managing partners, firm administrators, or long-standing clients. A voicemail authorizing an urgent document transfer or a video message requesting credentials no longer raises immediate suspicion, as it looks and sounds authentic. These attacks often culminate in Business Email Compromise (BEC), where adversaries patiently monitor settlement communications and alter wiring instructions at the precise moment funds are moved, usually without deploying malware or triggering traditional security alerts.
At the same time, ransomware itself has changed. Many attacks no longer rely on loud encryption events. Instead, firms face data suppression attacks. Hackers quietly delete, alter, or selectively corrupt discovery documents, medical files, or expert reports, often weeks or months before trial. The goal isn’t ransom. It’s sabotage. By the time firms discover the issue, the legal damage may already be irreversible, triggering discovery disputes, spoliation claims, or loss of settlement leverage.
Compounding the risk, many of these incidents don’t begin with dramatic breaches. They start with legitimate credentials, for example, compromised logins, over-permissioned staff, former employees, or shared access that was never properly revoked. Long case timelines give attackers the luxury of patience, allowing them to sit quietly inside systems until the most strategically damaging moment.
The threat surface also extends beyond the firm itself. Expert witnesses, co-counsel, eDiscovery vendors, and medical partners increasingly represent indirect entry points into case data. These third parties often operate with weaker security controls, yet maintain trusted access to highly sensitive information.
Cyber insurance has responded by tightening underwriting standards. Carriers now act as gatekeepers. Insurers routinely deny coverage unless firms can demonstrate an active Zero Trust architecture, immutable backups, and continuous access monitoring. Annual questionnaires now give way to technical validation, logging requirements, and proof of enforcement.
For plaintiff firms, the message is unmistakable: cybersecurity is now a core operational and legal risk. Surface-level defenses designed for yesterday’s threats no longer protect today’s cases, clients, or settlements.
Artificial intelligence has quietly become one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities inside law firms. This is not because it’s malicious, but because it’s unmanaged. Attorneys are under immense pressure to move faster. Public AI tools promise instant document summaries, deposition analysis, and case research. File sharing shortcuts, such as personal Dropbox accounts, unsecured links, and personal email, may feel efficient in the moment.
From a consultant’s perspective, this is Shadow IT at its most dangerous. Every time sensitive medical records, discovery materials, or settlement details are uploaded to a public AI tool, the firm loses control of that data. Even when vendors promise confidentiality, the firm cannot verify training usage, retention policies, or breach exposure. The same applies to consumer file-sharing platforms that lack legal-grade audit trails and access controls.
Consultants now anchor AI governance in Data Loss Prevention (DLP).
Actionable steps leading firms are taking include:
The goal is not to ban AI, but rather to control it. Firms that govern AI effectively gain speed without sacrificing trust or compliance.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has been the gold standard. However, as we move into 2026, it’s table stakes and increasingly insufficient in a threat environment where attackers bypass credentials altogether through session hijacking and token theft. Once inside, they move laterally without triggering login alerts.
This is why consultants are pushing firms toward Zero Trust architecture. Zero Trust assumes no user, device, or connection is trustworthy by default, even after they have logged in. Access is continuously evaluated based on multiple conditions.
In practice, this means:
If any variable changes, the system revokes access in real time.
The benefit is profound. Even if credentials are stolen, the data remains inaccessible. For plaintiff firms managing highly sensitive client records, Zero Trust dramatically reduces catastrophic risk.
Ransomware defenses no longer focus solely on prevention. The consulting mindset has shifted toward resilience.
At the core of this strategy are immutable backups, often built on WORM (Write Once, Read Many) storage. Once data is written, it cannot be altered, encrypted, or deleted, even by administrators.
These backups are either physically air-gapped or mathematically unchangeable through cryptographic controls.
Why does this matter? Because when—not if—a system is compromised, the firm’s survival depends on recovery speed.
Consultants now measure success using Recovery Time Objective (RTO):
Firms with immutable backups and rehearsed recovery plans regain operations in hours, not weeks. Those without those measures in place face risk to their existence.
Cybersecurity has quietly entered the negotiation room. Large corporate defendants increasingly evaluate a plaintiff firm’s security posture when discussing settlement mechanics, data exchanges, and fund transfers. A weak posture introduces risk, and risk becomes leverage.
On the client’s side, trust matters more than ever. Clients entrust plaintiff firms with the most private details of their lives, including medical histories, trauma narratives, and financial hardship. Firms that can visibly demonstrate compliance—through SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA audit readiness, or third-party security assessments—stand above the crowd.
Security credentials are no longer internal checkboxes. They are marketing assets. Displayed correctly, they reassure clients, strengthen referral relationships, and signal professionalism at scale.
In 2026, strong cybersecurity doesn’t slow firms down. It differentiates them.
The objective for plaintiff law firms is not impenetrability. No system is unbreakable. The goal is resilience. It involves the ability to detect, contain, recover, and continue advocating for clients without disruption.
Cybersecurity in 2026 is about governance, access control, and recovery readiness. Firms that treat it as a strategic function rather than an IT afterthought protect their clients, their reputation, and their financial future.
Roman Shraga
CTO | Klik Solutions
Roman Shraga is the CTO of Klik Solutions, a Technology Service Partner supporting clients across regulated and high-trust environments. He advises organizations—including MSPs and security providers—on turning cybersecurity into a repeatable operating system that aligns people, process, and technology. His work bridges technical architecture with operational and business outcomes, driving resilient execution and pragmatic innovation.
