A major accountancy firm has been granted an ex-parte injunction without notice against the unknown perpetrators of a ransom hacking attack following a private hearing. In Armstrong Watson v Person(s) Unknown Mr Justice Ritchie, sitting as the urgent applications judge, made orders prohibiting persons unknown (PUs) from publishing or communicating information apparently stolen from Carlisle-based chartered accountant and business advisory firm Armstrong Watson LLP. 

The order also requires the persons unknown to deliver up and/or destroy the confidential information. 

In a public judgment restricted to the facts necessary to explain the reasons for the order, Ritchie noted that Armstrong Watson did not seek anonymity. 

According to the judgment, the hack became apparent on 9 March when the firm received an email threatening to release information on the dark web unless a payment was made in bitcoin. ‘This state of affairs is current and ongoing,’ the judge said. He did not give details of subsequent events on the grounds that 'doing so would or might enfranchise or enable the PUs to further their nefarious activities'. 

The applications were granted without notice because 'there is a real risk that notice will trigger the PUs to misuse or disseminate the confidential information’. Giving his reasons for granting a private hearing, the judge said 'it is clear that this is still an ongoing incident' and there is a 'weighty need not to hamper efforts to deal with and trace the PUs.'

Commenting on whether the order engages article 10 of the Human Rights Act, the judge observed that 'blackmail represents a non-use or misuse of free speech rights. Such conduct will considerably reduce or abolish the weight attached to the right to free speech.'

The judge also agreed to restrict the service of hearing papers to the persons unknown and to third parties such as internet service providers unless they gave an irrevocable written undertaking and are within the jurisdiction. 

The order could be served via the website through which the firm and the blackmailers had been communicating, the judge said. 'Even if the PUs are out of this jurisdiction, once they have been validly served… they and the companies storing the confidential information may be within the reach of the court and may be restrained from acts both within the jurisdiction and more widely.'

Recent years have seen a spate of so-called ‘ransomware’ attacks on professional services firms, including law firms and barristers’ chambers. 

 

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