Joseph L. Bruemmer

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DSIR Deeper Dive into the Data: Ransomware Front and Center

By Joseph L. Bruemmer and Elise Elam on June 16, 2022 Posted in Ransomware

There is no question that ransomware is here to stay. Thirty-seven percent of the matters we handled last year involved ransomware, compared to 27 percent of matters in 2020. In 2019, there were approximately 15 active ransomware threat actor groups. In 2021, we handled matters involving more than 80 different ransomware variants. Government entities and … Continue Reading

Forensics Deep Dive: The Importance of Proper Configuration and Monitoring

By Joseph L. Bruemmer on April 14, 2022 Posted in Data Breaches

Many of the trends we observed in 2020 continued in 2021. Network intrusions and ransomware continued in full force, representing more than half the incidents we handled last year. Threat actors continued their tried-and-true tactics of encrypting devices and exfiltrating data to extort payments, and also tried new approaches or variations on old ones, like … Continue Reading

Incident Response and Forensic Challenges in a Work-from-Home World

By Joseph L. Bruemmer on May 18, 2021 Posted in Data Security Incident Response

Our 2021 Data Security Incident Response Report discussed the challenges that organizations are facing with forensic investigations and ransomware recovery in the work-from-home world. Some of the greatest difficulties our clients encountered in the past year involved key components of incident response — communicating with employees, resetting remote user passwords, and deploying endpoint detection and … Continue Reading

The Destruction of Privilege and Work Product Protection for Data Breach Investigations?

By Craig A. Hoffman, Theodore J. Kobus III, Lynn Sessions, Casie Collignon, David Carney, Joseph L. Bruemmer, Thomas Hogan and Aleksandra Vold on June 17, 2020 Posted in Data Breaches

Attorneys play an important role in the incident response process. A skilled and experienced attorney can help organizations effectively respond to a security incident in a way that complies with obligations, protects key relationships, and prevents or mitigates financial consequences. Unfortunately, some have sold the value of involving an attorney in the incident response process … Continue Reading

Cybersecurity Firms Issue Annual Threat Reports

By Joseph L. Bruemmer on March 12, 2019 Posted in Cybersecurity

CrowdStrike, FireEye and IBM Security recently released their annual threat reports. These reports contain a wealth of information on recent trends in cybersecurity attacks and recommendations on the preventive measures companies can take to protect themselves. As attackers’ tactics, techniques and procedures continue to evolve, and as the attack surface of organizations continues to grow, … Continue Reading