A law firm specialized in Technology, Business and Cybercrime is launched: Zlati Ionescu Chiperi – ZIC.legal

A team of lawyers specializing in cybercrime, blockchain, commercial and business law today launches the law firm Zlati Ionescu Chiperi (ZIC.legal). The stated goal of the law firm is to respond to the increasingly complex needs of the business environment in the face of digital transformation, the advance of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Zlati Ionescu Chiperi (ZIC.legal) offers legal solutions in the fields of tech, business and cybercrime, both for start-ups and already established companies operating in emerging sectors, including IT, Artificial Intelligence and crypto-assets, with a strong presence in Bucharest and Transylvania, as well as cross-border, at EU level.

“Tech companies – and not only – are facing complex legal challenges, from intellectual property protection to cybersecurity and criminal liability. We are witnessing a fundamental transformation, driven by emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence. These are not only generating new business opportunities, but are completely redefining entire sectors and creating unprecedented legal challenges. In this digital age, the boundaries between technology, business and criminal matters are becoming increasingly blurred, and traditional law can show its limits. The launch of the law firm Zlati Ionescu Chiperi (ZIC.legal) comes in response to the market demand for legal expertise at the intersection of technology, business and criminal law. The team combines practical experience with academic vision to provide legal solutions capable of anticipating technological and legislative developments in emerging areas such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and crypto-assets,” says lawyer George Zlati, founder of ZIC.legal.

Attorney George Zlati, with extensive experience in the field of cybercrime and blockchain technology, together with Adina Ionescu, specialized in business and technology law, and Simona Chiperi, with experience in M&A and start-ups, form a team capable of managing complex projects that require interdisciplinary skills.

“Romanian entrepreneurs who have or want to open a business focused on innovative fields such as crypto-assets or artificial intelligence are faced with a paradox: on the one hand, the national legislation on companies is outdated and completely unadapted to the needs of start-ups – which do not even benefit from their own legislation. On the other hand, the European regulations in these fields are extremely new and voluminous, creating additional challenges for entrepreneurs. In order to obtain the desired legal solutions adapted to the complex needs of these companies, a team is needed that understands both the technology they develop/use, and the legislative landscape that does not expressly respond to all problems and situations that may arise in practice”, declare lawyer Adina Ionescu and lawyer Simona Chiperi, both founders of ZIC.legal.

How AI has changed cybercrime

Cybercrime has transformed radically in recent years, going far beyond the classic scheme of online fraud or phishing attacks to obtain data associated with bank cards. Beyond “traditional” crimes – such as illegal access to computer systems, carding or online fraud – we are witnessing the emergence of much more complex forms of crime.

ZIC.legal’s case study includes the theft of virtual currencies through the use of fraudulent smart contracts, the manipulation of smart contracts at the blockchain level, the theft of hundreds of bitcoins through complex cyber attacks, the counterfeiting of virtual currencies, investment fraud involving virtual currencies, complex fraud using artificial intelligence, etc.

“The “exotic” part of current cybercrime consists in the hybridization between emerging technologies and classic crimes. We see attacks that combine social engineering with the exploitation of technological vulnerabilities, sophisticated investment frauds including deepfake and complex attacks on critical infrastructures. A recent and worrying phenomenon is the use of artificial intelligence to facilitate criminal conduct. This allows for advanced personalization of phishing attempts, the creation of convincing fake identities for online fraud, targeting victims through bots, etc. In this complex ecosystem of cybercrime, the traditional legal approach becomes insufficient,” adds lawyer George Zlati, founder of ZIC.legal.

On the thread of digital evidence A relevant example of a common cybercrime today, with the help of AI: an attacker can generate a QR code to redirect the victim to a counterfeit web page of a banking institution and get them to enter sensitive data into a form. The victim can then receive an email that appears to be sent by the bank (a technique called mail spoofing), which has content written with the help of artificial intelligence and based on data automatically collected from the Internet using bots (a technique called web scraping). The victim can even be called by phone so that they believe that they are being called by a bank representative (a technique called caller-ID spoofing).

Deepfake video or audio can be used for identity theft, thus amplifying the risk of deception.

“At ZIC.legal, legal analysis goes hand in hand with a deep understanding of technical aspects. We are able to identify and interpret relevant digital evidence, use advanced tools such as OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) and blockchain-level transaction tracking solutions, allowing us to reconstruct the route of stolen funds and identify patterns of criminal activity, even in the most sophisticated cybercrime schemes,” said lawyer George Zlati, founder of ZIC.legal.

The evolution of technology, from facilitating crime to better preventing and combating cybercrime

If at least in the short term, the balance tilts in favor of criminals, in the long term, technology is always used successfully to prevent and combat crime. In the last 10 years, significant progress has been made in everything related to the collection and evaluation of digital evidence, with artificial intelligence set to facilitate the process of sorting and interpreting digital evidence, no longer requiring the same human resources to process an enormous amount of data.

About the ZIC.legal team

University lecturer Dr. lawyer George Zlati – specialized in computer crimes, criminal business law and blockchain technology. Doctor of Law with thesis in computer crime, university lecturer and author of the first Computer Crime Treaty in Romania. External collaborator of the National Institute of Magistracy, for the continuous training of judges in the field of computer crime.

Lawyer Adina Ionescu – with experience in business law, technology and public procurement, passionate about litigation and strategic negotiations. From negotiating key contracts for the conduct of clients’ commercial activity (by protecting intellectual property rights, long-term financial interests, creating mechanisms to protect them within companies, etc.) to successful representation before the courts, she provides legal advice at every stage of a business’s development.

Lawyer Simona Chiperi – specialized in civil and commercial law, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and start-ups. With a solid experience in legal consultancy in the tech sector, she has assisted clients in the IT and AI fields in complex transactions, such as listing a company on the AeRO market, concluding large-scale M&A transactions and managing significant investment rounds in successful start-ups. With a particular interest in medical law, she has assisted and represented clients in complex medical malpractice litigation, as well as in negotiating the terms and conditions of concluding transactions in this field.

Lawyer Vlad Ulici – specialized in criminal law, with a focus on corruption crimes, economic crime and cybercrime. She actively contributes to the specialized legal literature through articles on cybercrime, customs crimes, crimes against the administration of justice and criminal procedure.