More and more often cyber-attacks and data breaches are being highlighted in the media today. The public’s awareness has increased clients’ demands that cybersecurity for law firms is heightened, knowing the type of sensitive data that law firms possess. Your law firm’s reputation is on the line – the impact of an attack on your business is unthinkable. It’s a necessity for law firms to have full client trust, which means they have a duty to protect their clients’ sensitive information.
An attack can also be incredibly devastating for law firms because it’s much harder for small businesses, like many law firms, to be able to afford the consequences of an attack and stay afloat.
For law firms of every size, cybersecurity will be a continuing challenge. Because law firms often deal with highly sensitive information, it’s not surprising they have a target on their back when it comes to cyber-attacks.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of regulations and guidance within the legal industry regarding cybersecurity. To help law firms keep themselves and their clients protected, we’ve created a checklist for managed detection and response (MDR)-based concepts provided in the ABA Cybersecurity Handbook. The checklist will guide you on assessing risk, monitoring and detecting threats to your network, developing plans for incident response, and creating customized reporting for compliance and regulatory purposes.
Assess
Establish a Risk Protocol – Ensure you have a process to identify, assess, and treat risks.
Periodic Security Vulnerability Assessment – This process is completed by validating and confirming that all appropriate security systems, procedures, and practices are in place and working as intended.
Detect
Continuous Monitoring 24/7 – Constant monitoring can expose anomalous activity, which allows you to stop an attack in its tracks before it becomes a catastrophic breach.
Subscription to Threat Intelligence (virus signatures, malicious IPs, domains) – Stay up to date on information about current and potential attacks that threaten the safety of your law firm.
Malware Detection (ransomware, potentially unwanted programs) – Malware detection isolates previously unknown threats by identifying malware based on characteristics and behaviors.
Cloud Monitoring – Identify patterns and discover potential security risks in your infrastructure.
Network Forensics Analysis – Monitor your digital environment for anomalous traffic and detect intrusions.
Detect Unauthorized Access and Activity – Identify specific actions or activities that can lead to a data breach.
Manual and Automated Containment – Establish a process to contain threats without having to take your entire system offline.
Respond
Documented Incident Response Review – 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.
Named Security Team for Triage and Response – 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.
Periodic Live Simulations to Test Incident Response Protocols and Teams – Conduct periodic “fire drills” that will simulate a cyber incident. This will help spot any weak links in your response protocol and ensure that all team members know exactly what to do.
Cybersecurity Governance
Compliance Reporting – Verify that the controls in place meet the appropriate standards required by each Compliance regulation.
Workflow Integration – Be sure to integrate cyber security into every step of your file sharing, printing, and cloud storage, including mobile workers.
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 a breach, and you’ll gain the advantage of having the ability to respond to breaches in minutes instead of weeks.
For more information on network security assessments, a free dark web scan, and how to keep your law firm safe from being breached, contact the JDL team at 973-607-2140 or fill out the form below.
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