Hacked: Lawyers Seek Answers After Breach of State Bar of Georgia Website
"We have placed contact information at gabar.org for specific departments," said State Bar of Georgia Communications Director Jennifer Mason. "People can certainly call those phone numbers and we will help them to the best of our abilities to try to get them the information they're looking for."
It’s not yet clear what information might have been accessed during a recent hack that the State Bar of Georgia is calling “an unauthorized access to its network.”
But what is clear is that, after almost a week of being unable to access online resources ranging from membership applications to attorney and case directories, frustrations are beginning to mount for some of the association’s 40,000-plus members.
When asked Thursday what information had been accessed without authorization, State Bar of Georgia Communications Director Jennifer Mason said, “At this point, we don’t have any other information.”
The bar first sounded the alarm on the network breach via Twitter on April 29.
“The State Bar of Georgia is experiencing network issues that affect both our website and email. All systems are down while we work through those issues,” the State Bar of Georgia tweeted. “Updated information will be posted on our social media platforms as it becomes available.”
Three days later, the bar elaborated in a series of tweets.
Upon learning of the unauthorized access, the State Bar of Georgia shared that it took immediate steps to secure the network. In addition to hiring a cybersecurity firm, it tweeted ”a thorough investigation is being conducted.”
“An endpoint detection and response system is being deployed throughout our network, which includes real-time continuous monitoring, analysis and response capabilities,” the State Bar of Georgia tweeted.
The association continued, “We are still investigating the incident and have not determined what information, if any, the unauthorized actor may have accessed. Updates will be posted on http://gabar.org as additional information is available.”
As the investigation into the network breach continues, the State Bar of Georgia has dialed back its website.
Instead of pages of content highlighting association and department updates, membership resources and directories, a single, static landing page containing contact telephone numbers for a variety of State Bar of Georgia divisions and resources is what currently greets users who visit https://www.gabar.org/.
“We have placed contact information at gabar.org for specific departments,” Mason said. “We also have contact information for departments and programs. … People can certainly call those phone numbers, and we will help them to the best of our abilities to try to get them the information they’re looking for.”
The State Bar of Georgia also encouraged jurists to consider stopping by its offices.
