The State Bar of Texas is warning of a member data breach after the INC ransomware gang claimed to have hacked the organization and started leaking stolen data.
The State Bar of Texas is the second largest bar association in the United States, with over 100,000 members. Affected members began receiving notificationsstating that the association had suffered a breach between January 28 and February 9, 2025. However, the incident was discovered on February 12.
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The attackers allegedly stole information from the network, including names and other data listed in public data breach notifications filed by the State Bar of Texas with the Attorney General's offices.
The notice doesn't provide much information about the hacking group that carried out the attack, but the INC ransomware gang added the State Bar of Texas to its dark web extortion page on March 9, 2025.
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To lend more credibility to their claims, the hackers leaked samples of the allegedly stolen files, including legal documents. It has not yet been verified whether this data came from the club's networks and whether it was private or publicly available information.
Bar association members who received notification of the data breach will be able to use Experian 's credit monitoring and identity theft protection service for free .
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If the gang's claims are true, then the State Bar of Texas data breach was initiated by a ransomware group. This means that the association, like all organizations, must take steps to prevent ransomware attacks and data breaches:
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all user accounts
- Enable firewall on all devices connected to the network
- Encryption of sensitive data
- Updating devices and systems with the latest security patches
- Conducting regular security audits and penetration testing
- Using strong, unique passwords
- Limiting user access to only necessary systems and information
- Use solutions email security for additional protection against phishing attacks
- Recovery plan for rapid restoration of systems in the event of an attack
- Regular data backups
- Update on new threats
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
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