Major Florida law firm discloses client data breach

The Gunster law and lobbying firm, which has 13 offices throughout Florida, says it experienced a “data security incident that involved personal information of some individuals, which Gunster obtained in connection with providing legal services.” The breach was disclosed in a legal notice published in the Friday print edition of the Tallahassee Democrat. Carrie Hanna, the firm’s chief strategy officer, told City & State that Gunster would not have “additional comment other than what is in the notice,” a version of which is also on its website. 

The notice said Gunster “immediately took measures to contain the incident and securely restore its network. A thorough investigation was conducted,” leading to the realization there had been “unauthorized access to its document management file system over the weeks leading up to its discovery of the incident.” 

“The information varied by individual but could have included name and one or more of the following: date of birth, Social Security number, driver's license number, financial account information and medical information, including medical records numbers, health insurance benefit information, claims data, diagnosis and treatment information,” the notice said. “On April 6, 2023, Gunster began mailing letters to individuals whose information may have been involved . . . . ” 

“To help prevent something like this from happening again, Gunster has implemented additional safeguards and technical security measures to further protect and monitor its systems.” Bloomberg Law News reported last month that “news of data breaches at prominent firms has become close to a weekly occurrence,” leading to lawsuits against some firms “claim(ing) they didn’t sufficiently guard against the possibility of cyberattacks.”