Posted by My new article in Slaw.ca “Five Steps for Added Security“:
Most lawyers and law firms know what they should be doing to maintain a secure computing environment in order to comply with ethics rules regarding confidentiality, as well as data breach notification laws. This list includes maintaining firewalls and up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware, maintaining vigilance when opening attachments and surfing the Internet, using strong and different passwords for each important login, scrutinizing the security protocols of cloud providers, maintaining adequate backup files, and keeping operating systems patched. However, there are still almost dailyreports of companies – and even law firms – experience breaches. What else can be done to minimize risk? In a fascinating four part discussion in Forbes, security expert Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, writes of a conversation with a managing partner and IT partner at a large New York law firm. The topic? A data breach at the law firm. The firm was notified by the FBI that client data had been found on servers in China. The partners wanted Paller to explain how this could have happened – and how to avoid a recurrence. What can you do to keep hackers at bay that you aren’t doing now?