Modern Law Firm Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity needs to be a top priority for legal firms today. You aren’t just a target – you’re a primary target. The fact is that legal firms were cybercriminals’ top choice for ransomware targets in the first quarter of 2019.
Are you prepared to defend your law firm from cybercriminal attacks?
The State Of Law Firm Cybersecurity In 2020
According to the ABA Legal Technology Report, legal firms use a range of cybersecurity measures at varying rates:
- Spam filters – 87%
- Anti-spyware – 80%
- Firewall software – 79%
- Pop-up blockers – 75%
- Desktop and laptop virus scanning – 73%
- Email virus scanning – 69%
- Mandatory passwords – 68%
- Network virus scanning 66%
- Hardware firewalls 57%
Less than half of surveyed firms use security measures such as file encryption (46 percent), file access restriction (41 percent), email encryption (38 percent), intrusion detection (34 percent), intrusion prevention (33 percent).
How do your cybersecurity defenses measure up?
What Should Your Cybersecurity Include?
1. Equip Your Firm With Next-Generation Cybersecurity Solutions
These advanced types of cybersecurity software (firewalls, antivirus, antimalware) use artificial intelligence to better predict, identify and eliminate harmful malware.
Security based on advanced algorithms that can adapt and learn creates a system that can become familiar with the normal patterns associated with each user and device, detecting anomalies in those patterns quickly.
Essentially, something known as a neural net can be used in cybersecurity efforts. Based on a robust algorithm, the neural net can “learn” to spot patterns of data associated with previously identified and classified spear-phishing emails. For example, by incorporating this technology into an email client’s spam filter, the filter will be able to spot fraudulent incoming emails and eliminate them before they reach the recipient.
One of the best parts of neural nets is that they continue to learn and improve the more that they are used. With increasingly more data to draw from, this Artificial Intelligence will become more and more accurate in doing its job.
2. Update Software Continuously
You can’t afford to ignore software update notifications – but depending on your workload, you may have to. That’s where an IT company can help.
Software updates are not only to improve the functionality of the software; they also serve as a patch for recently identified vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. Your IT company can handle the management of these updates to make sure that not a single one is ever skipped or delayed.
3. Monitor Your Systems
Also known as host-intrusion protection (HIP), this type of monitoring software will detect and report specially-developed malware that would otherwise make it past conventional antivirus and antimalware software. Your IT company should be able to deploy a monitoring solution to keep an eye on your systems.
4. Verify And Test Your Backups
If you want your desktop files backed up, it’s your responsibility to make sure your cloud is doing so automatically. You must have a backup copy of your data in case it’s stolen or accidentally deleted.
Develop a Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery policy that specifies…
- What data is backed up
- How often it’s backed up
- Where it’s stored
- Who has access to the backups
Backup to both an external drive in your office and a remote, secure, online data center. Set backups to occur automatically. And make sure your backup systems are encrypted.
What’s The Best Way To Protect Your Law Firm?
The fact is that you probably can’t handle all of this on your own. At least, not effectively. As you grow your firm, you need to be able to focus on it, and not worry about your cybersecurity.
That’s why assistance from an expert IT company is so valuable – will help. Our team will help implement a range of robust security measures, deploying devices like firewalls, intrusion and gateway protection, and implementing best practices for patching and updates, and more. With our help, you don’t have to be worried about cybercrime in the legal industry.
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Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), IT Service Management, Team Building, IT Strategy, and Management. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) focused in Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management from Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
