Dive Brief:

• Security breaches which occurred at a number of law firms last year have now been linked to a group with connections to the Chinese government, according to Fortune.

• At one firm, hackers stole about around seven gigabytes of data, according to information obtained by Fortune, which could amount to tens of thousands of emails. Hackers reportedly gained access through the email accounts of partners and then relayed data to outside servers.

• For one of the firms, the attacks began in March 2015 and lasted for a period of 94 days, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

Law firms could be particularly appealing target for hackers because they often possess a wide range of sensitive information about their clients. Such information could result in insider trading, which has the potential to be extremely profitable. 

News of the breaches first broke in March, when The Wall Street Journal reported that hackers had accessed the computer networks of several prominent U.S. law firms, including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP — which represent Wall Street banks and Fortune 500 companies — along with several others. Not all of the hacking attempts were successful.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is continuing to investigate the case.