WASHINGTON DC - FEBRUARY 20, 2024: Williams and Connolly office sign at law firm entrance. The law firm is based in Washington DC. (Photo credit: DCStockPhotography / Shutterstock)
A prominent Washington, D.C. law firm that has represented powerhouse politicians just got hit with an apparent cyberattack from China.
According to The Washington Post, the attack on Williams & Connolly is being investigated by the FBI field office, alongside "similar ones executed by the same Chinese hackers, according to one of the people briefed on the matter. The hackers are suspected of breaching the networks of more than a dozen other law firms and technology companies in recent months."
The firm believes that no sensitive attorney-client privileged information was stolen as part of the cyberattack.
“During the incident, a small number of Williams & Connolly attorney email accounts were accessed by leveraging what is known as a zero-day attack,” stated Williams & Connolly in a message. “Importantly, there is no evidence that confidential client data was extracted from any other part of our I.T. system, including from databases where client files are stored.”
This law firm has a reputation for high-profile cases against the government. In addition to representing Bill and Hillary Clinton, it was "the first firm to step up and represent one of the law firms that had been targeted by President Trump with a punitive executive order as part of Mr. Trump’s campaign against firms he felt had opposed him legally and politically."
Some of those law firm deals, struck early in Trump's term, have since fallen apart as it has become clear they are unenforceable.