In many law firms and healthcare organizations, staff and even company principles, believe the steps necessary to enhance cybersecurity and protect customer data and legal documents are more of a “nuisance” than a necessity. As the head of your law firm, you need to change that mindset.

Your staff may not realize it, but a cyber-attack is almost a given in today’s online and connected world. A ransomware attack could cripple your law firm. A ransomware attack could hold your client data and your documents hostage. A ransomware attack could cost your firm upwards of $100,000 (or more) and could potentially lead to your firm shuttering its doors. Close to 60% of all companies that are hit by a cyberattack or ransomware attack will never recover and will close.

How much can you and your law firm afford to lose? Would your reputation suffer beyond repair once your clients discover their personal, legal and financial information has been compromised? The answer from many of the lawers we speak with is, “no!”

Change Your Legal Teams’ Mindset About CyberSecurity

Change the mindset of your IT staff, upper-level management, paralegals, the receptionist and everyone in between. Everyone who works at, or for, your law firm needs to think of cybersecurity as an asset to the company, not as a headache. For example, if you require two-factor authentication for log-ins, there will likely be staff who try to bypass that decree – you need to assure yourself that everyone is in compliance. The safety of your law firm and its long-term viability needs to be top of mind. A survey performed by the Poneman Institute found that “only 42% of respondents had confidence in their organization’s ability to handle IT security risks.” Are you within that 42% or do you have even lower confidence that your firm is protected?

Cybersecurity implementation strategies don’t need to be costly nor do they need to be time-consuming. You need to consider cybersecurity as a key asset of your law firm – the cost of doing business. Your law firm needs to make an investment in IT security and minimize the chance your firm will be attacked by a hacker. Remember, it’s not just major law firms that get hacked and attacked by ransomware. Smaller firms are a lower level of entry for hackers and that makes your firm more vulnerable.

Here are ways to impress upon your entire staff that the implementation of cybersecurity strategies are crucial to the viability of the firm and the viability of their own jobs.

1. Education is key. If your team hasn’t been educated on the importance of cybersecurity steps to take, they will bypass best practices. Employees are typically the root of many data breaches. The human factor is typically an accident (clicking a phishing link that opens the doors for malware). Employees need how to recognize potential threats, report them and stop them. Employees need to know that sharing passwords or accessing data from a personal computer from home makes the firm vulnerable. Training needs to be consistent and continual.
2. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your IT team. Does your IT team or any of its members have current cybersecurity training and knowledge? Is your IT team mainly focused on resetting passwords, performing backups and installing new software and hardware? If that’s the case you need to hire or contract with a cybersecurity expert. Cybersecurity is different from IT maintenance.
3. Outsource cybersecurity. Close to 70% of all businesses outsource cybersecurity details. An experienced cybersecurity expert can help you with business continuity and data recovery plan then implement the steps necessary to protect your law firm and its vital information. An experienced IT cybersecurity consultant will help assure your company and its data are safe, more importantly, he or she will work with you to assure if the firm is attacked that your data can be recovered and you can quickly and easily continue serving your clients.

If you’re not certain your firm is protected, give us a call and a member of our team will reach out and perform a cybersecurity analysis and let you know where there may be any potential weaknesses in your firm’s security.

WareGeeks Solutions is a Roselle, New Jersey-based complete IT consultant and solutions provider. We specialist in Data Protection, specifically Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (#BCDR). We work with medium and large law firms and in the healthcare industry. If you have IT or security questions contact Seth at WareGeeks Solutions. For information or a consultation, call (877) 653-7146, or email us at info@waregeeks.com. www.waregeeks.com