Florida Bar Exam Rescheduled For Oct. 13, With New Subjects To Be Tested And New Tech Provider; Applicants Say Prior Tech Company's Software Led To Russian Hacking Of Their Computers

Following up on Tuesday's post, After Cancelling Online Bar Exam Due To Tech Failure, Florida Supreme Court Establishes Supervised Practice Program For Bar Applicants:  Florida Supreme Court, Florida Bar Exam rescheduled for October 13:

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has rescheduled the next Florida Bar exam for October 13, with testing potentially continuing October 14 for any candidates who receive test accommodations. The exam will be administered using an online format provided by ExamSoft, a company with more than 20 years’ experience with delivery of online exams. Use of this platform will require that each applicant sitting for the October 2020 Bar Examination have access to a computer that has installed the necessary ExamSoft software.

The exam will consist of 100 multiple choice questions and three essay questions. All multiple-choice questions will be based on Florida law, and will test the following seven subjects:  Florida Rules of Civil Procedure; Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure; Torts; Business Entities; Evidence; Wills; and Trusts. The three essay questions will test Federal Constitutional Law and the following six subjects (all based on Florida law):  Torts; Real Property; Florida Constitutional Law; Ethics; Contracts; and UCC Article 3.

Other subjects that are normally available for testing under the current Bar Admissions Rules will not be tested in October. The board will provide more information to applicants in early September about software installation instructions and the mock examinations to familiarize them with the program that will be used for the examination.

A backup testing plan is also being developed, with details to be announced once they are complete.

The Florida Supreme Court has also elected to appoint a Registrant Advocate to aid in assuring that registrant’s concerns about administration of this examination are timely addressed. Details about the Registrant Advocate’s role will also be announced once finalized.

Applicants should check the Board’s website regularly for updates in details and for additional announcements about the upcoming exam. The Florida Supreme Court orders on this subject also are available.

Above the Law, Florida Bar Exam Kicks ILG To The Curb:

Just to recap, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners watched Indiana and Nevada both fail to run their bar examinations on time thanks to irresolvable technical difficulties. Nonetheless, the FBBE told all bar examinees that the test was going to go forward with the exact same provider, ILG, that failed to run the prior two tests. Then ILG forced the cancellation of multiple proposed test runs the week before the exam and the FBBE — incredibly — kept telling nervous applicants to sit tight and trust that everything would shake out. After stringing applicants along through the whole weekend, Florida canceled the bar exam with a scant notice and no plan.

Now the same people who managed that process are asking applicants to just accept that everything is going to be fine because NOW they’re using ExamSoft.

You know, the people who claim they were victims of a “sophisticated” cyberattack. Or maybe a straightforward DDoS attack? Or maybe just couldn’t handle the simultaneous load of one mid-sized state bar? How can this possibly go wrong?!?!?

The new and improved Florida bar exam will be held on October 13, so all those people who crammed for months for the August test… just keep it up! Or, don’t. Because the studying you’ve been doing for the first test doesn’t really apply because the new test is going to be three essay questions and 100 multiple-choice questions and different subjects!

ABA News, Law School Graduates in Florida Say Bar Test Software Compromised Computers:

Law school graduates in Florida were required to download software to take the bar exam virtually amid coronavirus -- and a number of them now say they encountered significant data breaches, including, in some cases, attempted hacks on bank accounts because of the software.

A number of Florida students who planned to take the online bar exam in August 2020 claim there were attempts originating from Russia to gain access to sensitive accounts after they downloaded test software from ILG Technologies, and in some cases, they say their entire computers were wiped out after downloading the test administering software.

"There are now accounts emerging of examinees receiving emails from websites claiming that their information was used to log in or that a login attempt was detected from another country,” a number of students wrote in a letter. ...

"There is no evidence linking any security breach with ILG Software," a representative for ILG told ABC News. "We actually have had our software audited via third party software security firm, based in Miami, Florida and the report came back negative for any virus or malware."

The Florida State Supreme Court has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Students were required to download the software four days before the exam, and quickly, their letter states, issues started to occur.

"Some have experienced a sudden influx of messages from foreign telephone numbers seeking Bitcoin, and many cannot access email accounts after their passwords were changed without their permission," the letter, which includes 28 pages detailing reported problems students faced, says.

Forbes, Florida Bar Exam Details Released Which Compensate Applicants For The Hardship Experienced