HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) — A Bermuda-based international law firm says it fears a data breach could result in confidential details of wealthy clients being made public.

Appleby, which advises clients and provides legal advice in a number of offshore jurisdictions, confirmed in a statement that a data-security incident resulted in some information being “compromised”.

An article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, headlined ‘Super-rich hacked in Bermuda data leak’, claimed the firm was warning some clients that sensitive information may have been accessed in the security breach.

Appleby, which has 10 offices around the world, including in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, said it had received inquiries from the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organisations.

“These inquiries have arisen from documents that journalists claim to have seen and involve allegations made against our business and the business conducted by some of our clients,” Appleby said in a statement.

“We take any allegation of wrongdoing, implicit or otherwise, extremely seriously,” it said, adding that it was unequivocally committed to the highest standards of client service and confidentiality.

“Appleby has thoroughly and vigorously investigated the allegations, and we are satisfied that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients. We refute any allegations which may suggest otherwise.

“We are a law firm which advises clients on legitimate and lawful ways to conduct their business. We do not tolerate illegal behaviour.”

Appleby said it had researched the allegations and believed they were “unfounded and based on a lack of understanding of the legitimate and lawful structures used in the offshore sector”.

Regarding the data breach, Appleby stated: “We have reviewed our cybersecurity and data-access arrangements following a data-security incident last year which involved some of our data being compromised.

“These arrangements were reviewed and tested by a leading IT forensics team and we are confident that our data integrity is secure.”