In general, the top targets for ransomware are users with a lot of money and / or information, limited IT infrastructure and limited controls. The potential benefit to a cyber criminal is the amount of money and information available.  For these reasons, lawyers and title insurance agents are some of the top targets for ransomware.

One way that lawyers and title insurance agents make themselves known to cyber criminals is by using email addresses that contain a word such as law, attorney, title, and so on. For example, email addresses such as Smithlaw@xyz.com, AttorneySmith@xyz.com, Smithlegal@xyz.com, and SmithTitleLLC@xyz.com make it easy to identify as a lawyer or title insurance agent.  Once a cyber criminal knows a lawyer or title insurance agent uses the account, the account becomes a target.