Private Equity Law Report Features Extensive Interview with White Collar Defense Partner Ian McGinley

May 24, 2022

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In “Former SDNY Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit Co‑Chief Discusses Prosecution Trends and Takeaways,” Private Equity Law Report interviewed Akin Gump white collar defense and government investigations partner Ian McGinley for a detailed look at his time as Co-Chief of the Southern District of New York’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.

A few highlights:

  • Trends in cybercrime cases prosecuted: “Business email compromise attacks – where someone gets into a business’s system and diverts payments outside of the normal course, oftentimes to a foreign bank account in a jurisdiction that the U.S. does not have great relations with – have really increased in recent years, as well as ransomware attacks and data breaches.”
  • Reporting speed: “[F]rom where I sat, that was one of the challenges that a lot of businesses faced. Cyber incidents happen quickly. There’s a need to respond quickly. And, I think companies are faced with the challenge of evaluating when to alert law enforcement because they want to be obviously accurate in what they report. But, sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get to the bottom of what happened.”
  • Lessons learned: “I think the old saying, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ is helpful advice. By and large, with the exception of some state-sponsored hacking campaigns, cybercrimes are crimes of opportunity. And, like putting locks on doors to thwart burglars, companies should be putting up protections.”
  • The prevalence of ransomware: “Ransomware attacks started out with bad actors that essentially created and deployed their own ransomware. Now we are seeing ransomware as a service, which is essentially like software as a service where some, not necessarily sophisticated, actors would have access to ransomware that others created. And they would either buy that ransomware or kick back a portion of the profits to the developers of the ransomware. It’s become easier for non-sophisticated actors to get into the ransomware business.”

To read the full interview, click here.

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