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5 Ways Law Firms Can Protect Their Sensitive Client Data

Ways to protect your law firm JDL

5 Ways Law Firms Can Protect Their Sensitive Client Data

Law firms often deal with a huge amount of highly sensitive information, and it’s necessary to ensure full client trust.  This amount of data would be inefficient to keep in a non-digital format, but technology does come with its vulnerabilities. Law firms have a target on their backs when it comes to cyberattacks because of the nature of their data, making sensitive client information even more vulnerable. You need to protect your firm’s reputation and your clients’ information – your business is built on data from clients, contracts, and cases.

If you think your law firm is too small to be targeted, think again. For law firms of every size, cybersecurity will be a continuing challenge. Hackers are now targeting small to medium-sized law firms instead of large organizations because smaller firms are often seen as the weaker link.  Although small to medium-sized firms have fewer resources to put towards a cyber-security program, they have the same cyber-security challenges and threats as the larger firms.  It can be overwhelming to acquire a large number of resources necessary to establish and maintain a solid cybersecurity program.

Here are 5 ways you can protect your clients’ sensitive data.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Phishing attacks are by far the most frequent cyber-attack on small or local businesses and training your employees to know when a suspicious email is an attack could stop a crisis in its tracks. Creating a cyber-consciousness culture should top of mind for any law firm. Encourage a smarter, more secure workplace with our 5-Minute Guide to Cyber Security.  Print it out or mount it somewhere in your office: https://jdlgrp.com/5-Minute-Guide-Cyber-Consciousness

GUARD RESOURCES

Ensure your policies allow the fewest actions and access to resources as possible. Having too many privileged users accessing your data is extremely dangerous. Minimize risk by using the principle of least privilege. Each new employee should be assigned the fewest privileges possible upon starting.  The privileges can be increased when necessary and revoked when no longer needed.

OPTIMIZE DATA STORAGE

Consolidation of data can minimize risk. Choose one storage method and implement firm-wide consistency.  If all employees are working within the same structure, it will make it simpler to retrieve, organize, and protect information.  Monitoring one system for security updates and potential breaches is much easier, and more manageable for a small IT department.

RESPONSE PLAN

Make sure your firm has an incident response plan. Establish an organized approach to managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack. This will enable you to limit the damage and reduce recovery time and costs.

Dedicate duties to key players in your firm to react quickly in the face of a cyber threat and practice data breach response best practices. Practicing this plan will give you some degree of control and help alleviate a potentially disastrous situation.

HIRE AN MSSP

Hiring an MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider) is one option law firms have when contemplating the best way to ramp up their cyber strategy.  By hiring an MSSP, you can focus on the important things – running your firm.  The MSSP will take the burden and risk of establishing and maintaining an expensive cyber-security program off your shoulders.

If you don’t have the resources or time to implement the above on your own, consider hiring an MSSP to protect your firm. SOC-as-a-service helps protect companies by combining machine learning and human expertise. The benefits include threats and vulnerabilities being analyzed in real-time and around the clock and evaluating and prioritizing risks. You also have access to a dedicated team of experts who function as your own security team. This will reduce your risk of being the next target for an attack, and you’ll gain the advantage of having the ability to respond in minutes instead of weeks.

For more information on a free dark web scan and how to protect your law firm, contact the JDL team at 973-607-2140 or fill out the form below.

SOURCES

https://www.ekransystem.com/en/blog/best-cyber-security-practices

1 Comment
  1. Levi Armstrong

    I like that you said that one way a legal firm can make sure their client’s sensitive data is safe and secured is by hiring a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP). The MSSP will be the one in charge of maintaining a cybersecurity program to reduce the risk of private data being stolen. My mom is actually thinking of hiring an estate planning attorney soon, so I’ll suggest that she hires someone from a firm that has strict information security.

    ReplyAugust 18, 2020 at 12:55 pm

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