Probate solicitors hit by cyber attack

[Gorganzolabrie]

I'm the executor for my aunt's will. The probate solicitor has been hit by a cyberattack and will be out of action for goodness knows how long. Stupidly I sent them all the original documentation without keeping copies (except for the will). They assure me that they will have kept them but can't return them in order for me to engage new solicitors as they can't locate them on the system.

Does anyone have any advice about what I can do?

Thanks

they are unlikely “to be out of action” for very long

why would you presume that?

The regulator (SRA) is on the case of Solicitors and their preparedness for cyber attacks.

How long between the attack and today?

Perhaps I'm catastrophizing but it happened on 6th May and they said they are at the beginning of their investigations.

This sounds a bit dodgy to me.

The British Library was hit by a cyberattack last October and their systems are still out, so yes @chargrilledchickenyum they can be down for a very long time. I’m not sure there is much they can do immediately OP unfortunately, as they are going to have to trawl through all the paperwork unless they pay the ransom.

their systems aren’t “down”!! I was there last week 😆

y, as they are going to have to trawl through all the paperwork unless they pay the ransom.

😆

That’s good news then - I was there six weeks ago and apparently it was still an issue then. Still ‘down’ for quite a few months though and caused a major issue for researchers.

As far as I’m aware some of the systems are still down. Several collections that used to be available digitally are in-person only. Other behind the scenes systems have had to be replaced with temporary alternatives. They do not intend to put the old systems back in the same way as they would be vulnerable to the same again, so some systems will never come back up, but new systems should eventually provide service that is at least as good as the old. They aren’t there yet.

Cyber attacks are nasty and can cost a fortune to recover from. In OP’s case they I would push for them to trawl through the paperwork so she can go elsewhere.