You may not realize it, but your law practice is uniquely designed to be highly attractive for hackers. Of course, you didn't set out to make your practice a hacker's paradise. No one does. Here are three reasons your law practice is at risk for hacking:
Large law firms tend to hold significant accumulations of private financial information, including due diligence materials, negotiation strategies, specific details on technological secrets, and many other critical items. In a globalized corporate environment, such materials as these can be worth millions of dollars to foreign intelligence interests.
Lucy Thompson, Chair of the ABA, points out (PDF link) that information released to law firms often enters an unguarded arena: “It’s possible the information comes from a very secure source, a company with very good security. Then it goes to a law firm, and who knows what kind of security they are going to have.”
Large companies accumulate vast quantities of documents, most of which have no usefulness to cyber-criminals and corporate spies. A company’s outside counsel, however, will only possess materials with the greatest sensitivity and value, so the interested hacker doesn’t have to sift through mountains of unrelated material.
Achieving data security is not deeply mysterious, however, and for most law firms it doesn’t require an enormous investment. Following a few well-defined steps can go a long way toward protecting your client data. The steps you can take now to prevent hacking are:
Read our previous post to learn about more ways to prevent hacking:
4 Ways To Prevent Your Client's Data from Getting Hacked