A Guided Tour of the Internet Underworld: Takeaways from ILTACON 2019
As Legal Current continues our look back at ILTACON 2019, we caught up with Joe Raczynski, Thomson Reuters technologist. He presented the ILTACON session Deep Dive into the Dark Web with Tom Schecker and Aaron Sherman.
They provided a guided tour of the internet underworld, exploring how and why law firms’ client data has become a multimillion-dollar business for criminals, and how lawyers can protect their clients’ data. Raczynski shared key takeaways from their session.
“The Dark Web is not all bad,” he said. “In fact, the mere idea that it exists drives the very point of the benefits of internet connectivity.”
For example, in countries where governments censor or ban access to information, the Dark Web can be helpful.
“In the session, we shared a scenario of someone who wished to learn more about democracy going onto the Dark Web and buying the Federalist Papers with an anonymous cryptocurrency,” Raczynski explained.
During the session, they also discussed scenarios that underscored how the Dark Web earned its name.
“Unfortunately, there are also some disturbing elements to the Dark Web,” Raczynski said. “You could hire a hacker to go after a law firm. In this instance, a client lost a case and blamed the firm, so she went to the Dark Web and hired a hacker to compromise the firm.”
Their session covered how the future of digital identity could prevent information from being sold on the Dark Web.
“One of the means to avoid having your information on the Dark Web in the coming years will be the use of digital identities and blockchain,” Raczynski explained. “In this new world, people will have bettercontrol over their own information.”
Overall, what he most wanted attendees to get out of the session was the importance of awareness.
“One of the biggest takeaways is that people have to be aware of what is going on and the tools that are available,” Raczynski noted. “With little technical experience, someone has the ability to start a ransomware attack or hurt an organization in a dozen different ways.”
Watch Legal Current for more ILTACON session highlights and recaps.
