Unauthorized User: Ransomware and Forensics

Overview of Unauthorized User: Ransomware and Forensics

Ransomware and the role of digital forensics for attorneys are covered here. Panelists discuss what ransomware attacks are and the current U.S. threat environment, break down the 2021 OFAC ransomware advisory and how it affects payment legality, give an overview of computer forensics and its role after an attack, and share best practices to limit an organization's ransomware risk.

What you’ll learn in Unauthorized User: Ransomware and Forensics

• Explain how ransomware attacks occur and the current threat environment
• Apply the 2021 OFAC ransomware advisory to payment decisions
• Understand the role of computer forensics after a ransomware attack
• Advise clients on best practices to limit ransomware risk

Curriculum

1. 1. Unauthorized User: Ransomware and Forensics for Lawyers 

   In this course, our expert panelists begin by discussing what ransomware attacks are, how they occur, and the current threat environment in the United States. Next, our speakers break down the 2021 OFAC ransomware advisory, which parties it applies to, and the factors considered in determining potential violations. They also review the option for licensing policies and the penalties imposed by OFAC. Next, our experts give an overview of computer forensics, its capabilities, and its role after a ransomware attack. Finally, our speakers share the best practices to limit an organization’s ransomware risk, which counsel can both observe and advise clients to do. Topics covered in this webinar: Overview of Ransomware OFAC Ransomware Advisory Overview of Computer Forensics and its Ro

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Your instructors

Daniel B. Garrie

Founder, Law & Forensics; Neutral at JAMS; Faculty at Harvard

Law & Forensics LLC · JAMS · Harvard · Rutgers Law School · Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare

Daniel B. Garrie is the founder and executive managing partner of Law & Forensics LLC, a boutique cybersecurity and forensic engineering firm he co-founded in 2008. He serves as a neutral, arbitrator, and forensic special master at JAMS, focusing on cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and complex technology disputes, and holds faculty appointments at Harvard and Rutgers Law School. A patented software inventor and prolific author, he is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare and a widely cited authority on computer forensics, eDiscovery, and cyber litigation.

Bradford Newman

Partner and Head of Complex Technology Disputes (US), Eversheds Sutherland

Baker McKenzie

Bradford Newman is a partner at Eversheds Sutherland and the firm's Head of Complex Technology Disputes (US), based in Silicon Valley, where he joined when the firm opened that office in 2025. He serves as lead trial counsel in national and cross-border high-stakes technology and trade secret litigation, and advises boards and C-suites on governance and regulatory risk in artificial intelligence, blockchain, decentralized finance and cryptocurrency. He is the founder and longtime co-chair of the American Bar Association's AI and Blockchain Subcommittee and edits the trade secrets chapter of the ABA Business Law Section's Annual Review. He previously chaired Baker McKenzie's North America Trade Secrets Practice, and is ranked by Chambers USA in trade secrets. At Legal Cyber Academy he teaches on ransomware and forensics, and on artificial intelligence and its regulation in legal practice.

Douglas Meal

Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity Litigation, Boston College Law School and Cleveland State University College of Law

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Douglas H. Meal is an adjunct professor of cybersecurity litigation at Boston College Law School and Cleveland State University College of Law, and a member of the American Arbitration Association's National Roster of Arbitrators for complex business and commercial disputes. As a trial lawyer he defended companies in litigation and government investigations arising from privacy and cybersecurity incidents, and he led the team in LabMD v. FTC, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit became the first court to overturn an FTC cybersecurity enforcement action. Chambers USA ranked him Band 1 for privacy and data security litigation, calling him the leading privacy litigator in the United States. In 2019 he joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's new Boston office from Ropes & Gray to lead the firm's cyber and privacy litigation and enforcement practice. He holds a J.D. from Harvard. At Legal Cyber Academy he teaches on ransomware and forensics.

Ignatius Grande

Director, Berkeley Research Group

Berkeley Research Group

As of 2019, Ignatius Grande was a director at Berkeley Research Group in New York. He has advised clients on electronic discovery, information management, and data privacy for more than 15 years, has performed compliance risk assessments covering records retention and data remediation, has guided law firms and companies through the eDiscovery and forensic investigation process, and has drafted information security, legal hold, and mobile device governance policies. He has served as a formal eDiscovery liaison and represented parties in eDiscovery disputes before regulators. He worked for two global law firms and was in-house counsel to a global commodities trading company, taught at St. John's University School of Law, and co-chaired a committee of the New York State Bar Association's Commercial & Federal Litigation Section. At Legal Cyber Academy, Ignatius Grande teaches on ransomware and digital forensics.

Yinan Yang

Senior Director, Incident Response (Americas Head of Incident Response Services), CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike

Yinan Yang is Senior Director of Incident Response at CrowdStrike and the Americas head of the company's Incident Response Services, overseeing the delivery of incident response and breach investigation services across the United States and Canada. Yang has more than a decade of cybersecurity experience across commercial verticals and the U.S. Department of Defense, spanning digital forensics, incident response, threat hunting, security operations and cyber threat intelligence. Yang's teams have investigated hundreds of cases ranging from nation-state intrusions to eCrime and ransomware, and Yang also leads methodology development and executive engagement for the practice. At Legal Cyber Academy Yang teaches on ransomware and forensics.