Cybersecurity And Law Practice: A Leaf From South Africa

1. Background

Arguably, the increasing sophistication and widespread adoption of digital technologies presents far more challenges than their emergence. As global commerce continues to shift from manual to purely electronic communication media, cyber criminals double-pedal in their malicious quests to outsmart and defraud unsuspecting commercial entities. Emails being the starting point for an overwhelming majority of cyberattacks, Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a major thriving channel for cybercrime and internet fraud.

On the average in the United States of America, there were 15,208 BECs per year from 2013 to 2021, costing an estimated $8.6 billion annually and $43 billion alone between 2016 and 2021. There were nearly 20,000 BEC complaints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2021 alone.¹ Reports of BEC attacks increased by 65% between 2019 and 2021, making it a critical issue for businesses including law firms.² The consulting industry ranked