With each passing month, we’re seeing steep increases in the number of cyberattacks waged against businesses, particularly small businesses. For law firms, proactively implementing sound security principles is the only way to avoid becoming a statistic.
The Need for Better Cybersecurity
According to the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Survey Report for 2019, 26 percent of law firms say they’ve experienced some sort of security breach. This includes hacker activity, website exploitation and smaller incidents like stolen laptops. Another 19 percent of respondents say they don’t know whether or not their firm has ever experienced a security breach.
The top consequences of a security incident for law firms include consulting fees for repair (37 percent), loss of billable hours (35 percent), the cost of replacing software or hardware (20 percent) and loss of files (15 percent). The number of cyber attacks on law firms is projected to increase in the coming years, which means cybersecurity must become an even bigger priority moving forward.
Five Security Tactics for 2020 and Beyond
With so many different types of cyber attacks and threats, it’s impossible for legal firms – or anyone else – to address everything that could be thrown their way. The objective is for law firms to shore up the obvious vulnerabilities and protect against all known attacks that could compromise them and the privacy of their clients.
Here are a few recommended tips that go beyond basic password integrity:
1. Penetration Testing
While overkill for most small law firms, penetration testing is something that larger firms with big clients should at least consider. This is serious stuff and typically requires you to sign a lot of agreements with an ethical hacking firm to remove all liability, but it’s effective.
2. Security Assessments
For law firms that don’t want to go through the cost and risk of penetration testing, a security assessment is a much more practical option. It’s conducted using a combination of advanced software tools to review the network and come up with a list of vulnerabilities. These weak spots are ranked according to their risk and the proposal will generally recommend a few solutions to help address the underlying issues.
3. Careful Vetting
Third-party vendor attacks are quite common in the legal industry. When working with software providers or service partners, law firms should do due diligence and carefully vet them to ensure they don’t violate security protocols.
This is especially important when it comes to hiring a digital marketing company. This company plays a key role in all of a firm’s digital touchpoints – including website, social media, and email – and will either improve its security efforts or expose it to new vulnerabilities. Legal firms should choose wisely and be sure to ask about the different tactics they use to keep clients safe and out of harm’s way.
4. Cybersecurity Training
A law firm’s cybersecurity strategy is only as strong as the weakest link. And guess what the weakest link is? Your people.
The majority of cybersecurity issues actually stem from inside the law firm. They aren’t usually malicious. In most cases, they’re the direct result of negligence and/or a lack of understanding. Both of these issues can be overcome by placing a greater emphasis on cybersecurity training.
5. File Sharing
When sharing sensitive files, which is especially commonplace in the legal industry, firms need to be sure to have a process that involves password protection and encryption. If they’re using the cloud to share files, all documents should be password-protected to prevent third parties from gaining access to the information inside.
Be Proactive with Security
A reactive security strategy isn’t enough. By the time law firms detect a threat and formulate a defense plan, it’ll already be too late. They must establish proactive systems that actively scan their network for threats and neutralize them before serious problems arise. The steps highlighted in this blog post should provide a solid starting point.