File Sharing Data Breach Exposes High-Powered Lawyers

Towards the end of 2007, an employee of a McLean investment company embraced file sharing and started to swap material using file-sharing network LimeWire. The problem is he also used a company computer for this. Proving to be an inexperienced user, the employee inadvertently shared a folder containing sensitive information of his firm, Wagner Resource Group, to the other users.

His action led to the disclosure of the names, personal data and Social Security numbers of about 2,000 of the company's clients, among which some high-powered lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, The Washington Post reports.

It took about six months for the breach to be discovered.

According to Robert Boback, chief executive of Tiversa (the company hired by Wagner to deal with the data breach), such events occur often. Apparently, between 40 and 60 % of all data leaks happen outside of a company's secured network, and that most of the times because of some employees or contractors who use file-sharing applications on company PCs.

"We've seen a lot of instances where a company will be working on a product that's not even released yet, and the diagrams for that product are already out on the Net," Boback said. "This case is unique because of the high profile of the targets. The individuals on this list are at a very high risk, almost imminent, of identity theft."

Phylyp Wagner, founder of the investment firm, said that the clients whose personal data were made available have been al notified about the breach and also offered each six months of free credit-report monitoring. He highlighted that his clients' financial records were not put in danger during this p2p exposure. However, reportedly, a number of lawyers who fell victims to the disclosure did go through some negative financial experience.