Alicia faces a dilemma as she kicks off her campaign, the firm's computers are held for ransom by a con artist, and Alicia tries to throw Elsbeth Tascioni off her game as they go head-to-head in a trial.
When Alicia and Dean represent a fired female CEO in a sex discrimination suit against her company, they face a tough defense team in familiar foes Elsbeth Tascioni and Rayna Hecht. Meanwhile, a hacker seizes control and threatens to delete all of Florrick/Agos/Lockhart's files, sending the firm into panic mode when he demands a ransom.
Alicia and old friend Elsbeth Tascioni finds themselves on opposite sides of the aisle as Alicia and Dean represent Camilla Vargas the former CEO of a hi-tech firm who claims she was fired because she was a woman. As the case begins, Elsbeth suggests to her partner and lead counsel Rayna Hecht that they make the case not about sexism but about Vargas' abrasive management style. The firm faces a major crisis when their computers are hacked and they lose access to their files. They seem to be the victim of ransom-ware and have 72 hours to pay $50,000 or lose their files forever. They pay, but he blackmailer sends the decryption key to Diane's old email address at Lockhart Gardner. Alicia is about to announce her candidacy but finds herself in conflict with Peter after she invites ASA Finn Polmar to introduce her.—garykmcd