MCCA Global TEC Forum
Minority Corporate Counsel Association
Speaking Engagement | June.19.2017 | 3:45pm - 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
San Francisco, CAOrrick partners Darren Teshima and Aravind Swaminathan will join Monica Patel, Senior Regional Counsel at IBM, for a panel discussion on “Preparing for a Ransomware Attack” at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's Global TEC (Technology, Education, and Careers) Forum.
As the WannaCry ransomware attack earlier this year highlighted, a ransomware attack is a key threat to even the most sophisticated businesses. In 2016, hackers attacked about half of all U.S. companies with some type of ransomware. Not only are the attacks on the rise, but every week new ransomware variants appear in the internet ecosystem. Ransomware attacks can pose an immediate threat to a company’s business, with the potential to shut down operations if effective safeguards and response protocols are not in place. There are legal risks as well. Regulators have become more attentive to the growing number of attacks, and some have made proclamations about how companies should respond that fundamentally change the legal compliance landscape, requiring the merger of business continuity and disaster recovery plans with incident response activities. The panel will discuss the scope of the ransomware threat to your business, the steps each company should take to prevent ransomware attacks—including having in place an incident response plan and relevant cyber insurance coverage—and how to respond should one occur.
Practice:
- Finance Sector
- Technology & Innovation Sector
- Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation
- Class Action Defense
- White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
- Government Investigations and Enforcement Actions
- Trials
- Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)
Aravind Swaminathan Partner
Seattle; Boston
A leading cybersecurity and online safety authority, Aravind is recognized by Chambers USA in Privacy and Data Security in both Litigation and Incident Response. Clients describe him as “a very talented lawyer experienced with incident responses” and “incredibly responsive and technically savvy.”
Aravind’s deep knowledge of his clients’ business objectives and technological capabilities distinguishes him as a strategic advisor and frontline crisis responder. He advises some of the world’s leading online platforms, public and private financial institutions, tech companies, higher education institutions, and critical infrastructure providers on cybersecurity, and their obligations to monitor and remove harmful or illegal content online and root out instances of child exploitation.
He is adept at guiding companies through cybersecurity incidents, having directed more than 500 data breach investigations, including enterprise-wide network intrusions to cyberattacks with national security implications. Aravind defends clients in an array of cybersecurity and privacy class actions and regulatory enforcement actions brought by the SEC, FTC, NY DFS and State AGs, and also represents individual C-level executives in criminal and civil regulatory enforcement matters.
As a former assistant United States attorney, he investigated and prosecuted a broad array of cybercrime, child exploitation cases, digital crimes, and white-collar crime cases. This first-hand knowledge of federal agencies allows him to navigate the system, partner with investigators and find creative solutions for clients.
Aravind is a member of Orrick’s Board of Directors, and he devotes much of his free time to advising independent schools on AI, online safety, and cybersecurity, and teaching and coaching.