February 2025

Register now: February 24 cyber coverage webinar will explore risks of business email compromise

Because business email compromise ("BEC") often relies on social engineering, people are as important as technology in preventing losses from BEC.

Usually, a cybercriminal uses stolen email credentials or a spoofed email address that looks like a trusted address. The goal is to trick an employee or a client into bypassing normal procedures, which can open the door to the cybercriminal stealing money or gaining access to valuable information and assets. The cybercriminal may attempt to misdirect electronic payments or steal sensitive data such as the personal information of law firm clients. Ransomware and extortion events can also result. With social engineering tactics, a thief does not have to use brute force to break into your system – they can circumvent your security by convincing someone to open a malicious link or attachment, give up a password, or approve access.

Join ALIA for a free webinar to learn how the Universal Cyber Coverage Program that you already have through ALIA, provided by Beazley Canada Limited (“Beazley”), can help you in the event of a cyber incident. The session will include presentations from Beazley, the insurer that provides ALIA’s cyber coverage as of July 1, 2024, and Aon, ALIA’s broker.

Subscribers are encouraged to share this invitation with their law firm administrators, IT managers, and Chief Information Security Officers.

WEBINAR: Business Email Compromise: Exposure Analysis for Law Firms, Risk Management and Insurance Implications

Date: Monday, February 24, 2025

Time: noon – 1:00 p.m. MST

Location: online (Microsoft Teams)

Cost: Free

Presenters include:

Katie Andruchow

Senior Vice President and National Cyber Broking Practice Leader, Aon

Nicholas Hickey

Beazley Director, Cyber Services - Canada

Webinar Topics:

What is a business email compromise ("BEC")?
What types of loss can BEC cause for a law firm?
How to prevent and mitigate the exposure to BEC
Universal Cyber Coverage Program – covered vs. uncovered events
How and when to report a claim

As the webinar requires individual links for all participants, please have each member of your firm register separately.

Registrants will receive an email confirmation containing a link as well as an attachment to add the event to their calendar.

The webinar will be recorded and those who are unable to attend can request a link to the video by contacting ALIA.

ALIA welcomes Catherine Merrett to Board of Directors

ALIA is pleased to announce the appointment of Cathy Merrett to its Board of Directors, effective November 28, 2024.

Cathy is an excellent addition to the already strong board, bringing with her a great deal of practical operational and business experience. She has maintained a busy corporate commercial practice for over thirty years, during many of which she also acted as one of the managing partners of TingleMerrett, LLP, in Calgary.

Throughout her career, she has cultivated a specific focus on mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry, banking and finance, and venture capital / private equity fund work in the agri-business sector. Her prior board experience includes service in the not-for-profit sector, as well as serving as a director of several small private and family corporations.

As a Subscriber to ALIA who has been protected by its coverage over the course of her career, Cathy says she is interested in increasing her knowledge of ALIA’s governance and management. She brings a valuable perspective to ALIA’s Board and is eager for the opportunity to give back to her profession.

Contact ALIA

New ALIA email addresses

Following on the launch of the ALIA.ca website, all ALIA employees now have email addresses with the domain name @alia.ca. General inquiries to the organization can now be directed to info@alia.ca.

Emails sent to an employee’s old @lawsociety.ab.ca address will still be delivered to the correct inbox without issue.

'Bite Size CPD' video resources available free from Law Society of Saskatchewan

For more than three years, the Law Society of Saskatchewan ("LSS") has been producing their Bite Size CPD Series to highlight useful information in easily digestible, under 10-minute videos. The episodes touch on an assortment of topics, with examples including mental wellness, practice management technology, and toxic firm members.

Much of the content is relevant to lawyers across Canada, including episodes from their series on Cybersecurity for Lawyers. LSS has devoted numerous episodes to exploring the critical risks that cyber attacks and scams present to lawyers, and steps you can protect yourself and your practice. ALIA Subscribers are free to peruse their catalogue of Bite Size CPD videos at no cost.

See resources

ALIALERT SCAM WATCH

Real estate transaction scams target multiple Alberta Lawyers

Similar ploys conned three firms into rerouting mortgage payout funds to fraudulent accounts

Several Alberta real estate lawyers have recently been hit with social engineering scams, prompting ALIA to again urge all its Subscribers to take extra precautions when facilitating transfers of funds.

In three incidents in December 2024, reported to ALIA by three different Subscribers, fraudsters impersonated different private lending companies that had provided mortgages to the Subscribers’ clients.

Read the full ALIALERT

ALIA does not provide legal advice. ALIAdvisory newsletters, ALIALERT warnings, ALIAction notices and the content on ALIA’s website, notices, blogs, correspondence and any other communications are provided for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal or other professional advice or an opinion of any kind. This information is not a replacement for specific legal advice and does not create a solicitor-client relationship.

ALIA may provide links to third-party websites. Links are provided for convenience only; ALIA does not vet or endorse the information contained in linked websites or guarantee its accuracy, timeliness or fitness for a particular purpose.

If you believe you have been targeted by potentially fraudulent activity, please contact ALIALERT.

Visit us at ALIA.ca

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