WINNIPEG -- The Law Society of Manitoba is warning its members to be vigilant online after two firms in the province were victims of ransomware attacks tied to COVID-19.
The organization confirmed the information in a news release on its website, saying the firms were victimized by a ransomware file known as MAZE.
“As a result of the virus attack, they have no access to email, Word, their accounting software, or any of their backups, including cloud backups,” the society wrote in the release. “Everything is tied up by MAZE and they have been asked to pay an enormous ransom to regain access to any of their work.”
The Law Society said it suspects someone clicked on a link or an attachment in an email that was infected with a virus, which in turn infected the firms’ entire systems.
They added the infected attachments appeared to be COVID-19 related. Examples of attachments in the news release included a map listing COVID-19 outbreaks, a link to register for a seminar to discuss COVID-19 responses, emails purportedly from vendors about COVID-19 and SMS messages inviting people to click on links advising about modified firm operations.
The society reminded members to not click on links from senders they don’t know, and confirm if the message is legitimate if it’s from someone they know. They added the firms are working with IT professionals and cyber insurers to recover the data.
“At this point, we do not know when or if they will ever regain complete access to their kidnapped data,” the society said.
CTV News Winnipeg has reached out to the Law Society to find out which firms were impacted by the attack
