CrowdStrike 2026 Legal Threat Landscape Report
On October 28, 2026, CrowdStrike released the “2026 Legal Threat Landscape Report” which estimated that legal entities are experiencing an increase of malicious cyber-attacks by 129%. CrowdStrike reports that “cyber adversaries named 455 legal entities on websites used to post hacked materials, up 39% from the prior year.” CrowdStrike is an American cybersecurity technology company that provides threat intelligence and cyberattack response services.
The most recent report, as of October 29, 2026, references legal entities that have experienced a data breach, including Troutman Pepper Locke LLP and Baker McKenzie. These attacks involved social engineering phishing attacks targeting employees who responded to illegitimate communications. Social engineering attacks are cyber incidents with the goal of building trust between the attacker and the targeted person. Traditionally, phishing attacks have been the most common type of cyber-attack, and they have proved to be very successful. Additional firms that have experienced successful incidents in the month of September include Buchalter PC, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC and McDermott Will & Schulte LLP.
Understanding The Latest Cyber Threats: Agentic AI
Most recently, hackers are utilizing traditional AI to target legal entities due to the high volume of protected, confidential data available, as well as the speed with which AI tools act. Threat actors also now use generative AI to improve the quality of impersonation and phishing messaging . Agentic AI is defined by IBM as “an artificial intelligence system that can accomplish a specific goal with limited supervision. It consists of AI agents: “machine learning models that mimic human decision-making to solve problems in real time.” This type of artificial intelligence differs from generative AI and other large language models because it can operate outside predefined constraints and can act “independently and purposefully.” Company defense against agentic AI is achieved by protecting themselves on two fronts: building up their defense against external attacks while also protecting the company via access controls and vulnerability management techniques.
The Risk of Data Breaches for the Legal Profession
It is important to continue thinking about the effects data breaches have on legal entities and lawyers as attackers utilize AI to create personalized attacks. Data breaches are posing serious risks to legal entities in multiple ways. Data breaches are extremely costly for law firms. In 2026, it has been reported that the average cost a company faces due to a single data breach is around $5.08 million dollars. This is a 10% increase since last year, and with these attacks becoming more frequent, more efficient, and more personalized, this number is expected to continue rising. Third, lawyers have an ethical obligation to understand the technologies they use in their practice. Data breaches have the issue of waiving attorney-client privilege. Another type of incident that is of particular concern to healthcare providers and legal entities is ransomware. When these attacks target legal entities, victims are more willing to pay higher ransom amounts to prevent their client’s data from being leaked publicly. Attackers exploit this vulnerability because lawyers have legal and ethical obligations to protect their client’s data. This vulnerability allows attackers to aggressively escalate the amount of ransom payments demanded. This is where the crux of the issue lies.
Legal entities and lawyers need to be proactive in their approach and training of employees who handle confidential information and need to continue to invest resources into cyber education and awareness programs for employees to protect internal and client data. Additionally, companies must begin to harden local networks and also monitor and control the information that lawyers and support staff are feeding to AI platforms that assist them in their everyday work such as legal research prompts and the information stored and contained within unsecured vaults. When AI models are trained on client data, it has the potential to leak the data inputted and is accessible for retrieval by other users. Additionally, with the increased usage of Agentic AI it can take the information obtained within these data leaks and tailor cyber-attacks to be more efficient and narrowed to specifics regarding your client, making the attack harder for personnel to identify.
The Need for Zero Trust Architecture
One way companies can protect themselves on both fronts is by implementing Zero Trust Architecture principles. This principle assumes that there is already an attacker inside of a corporate local area network when designing verification and authentication procedures to protect client data. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) limits agents to the information needed to perform their functions. This model of protection requires companies to act within the principal: “never trust, always verify.”
The ZTA model relies on 5 key points to protect the company from within:
1: Never Trust.
ZTA’s core philosophy relies upon treating all requests for access to information as a potential threat.
2: Always Verify.
Verification takes many forms including authorization, identity management techniques and utilizing various data points to confirm each access attempt.
3: Micro-segmentation.
Utilize network segmentation to limit access to only the information needed.
4: Least Privilege.
Users and devices should be granted minimal access to perform only the specific tasks required.
5: Assume Breach.
Breaches are inevitable and it is best to act as though there is already an attacker compromising your network.
As Agentic AI shapes the future of cyber-attacks, it is important for companies to proactively invest in technology and resources that seek to protect client data. With the price rising for each breach, companies will eventually face the cost one way or another. While companies resist implementing the most protective forms of technology due to its high initial cost, proactively implementing infrastructure that is less prone to cyber-attacks allows companies to adequately assure clients that their data is secure and protected, while avoiding potential class-action lawsuits and degradation of attorney client relationships in the future.
Sources:
Amanda Robert, Law Firms Face Increasing AI-Fueled Cyberattacks, New Report Says, ABA J. (Oct. 30, 2026, 9:49 AM).
Chuck Brooks, Spooky Cyber Trends for 2026: How AI Is Changing the Threat Landscape, Forbes (Oct. 28, 2026).
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