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Opinion: Law firms have multiple ever-growing blind spots

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In my experience, lawyers don’t like surprises, even though they generally deal with them quite well. With the evolution of technology, information technology companies have seen many new blind spots that quickly are becoming larger and taking law firms by surprise.

Blind spots can cost in liability, client relations and staff time.

Any of those can make or break the income statement of a law firm, and some could even shut it down. Let’s review a few common blind spots, in the hopes any surprises can be avoided:

1. Mobile device security. This should not surprise anyone. Millions of devices are lost or stolen every year.

This applies to mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers. You can buy insurance for those devices, but few are insuring the data that is on them. Mobile device management, aka enterprise mobility management, is only one piece of the blind spot that seeks to secure the data on mobile devices. Essentially, a piece of software is installed on devices to allow information technology management and support companies to remove the data if the device becomes compromised.

Imagine confidential emails, texts, chat messages and voicemails from clients or partners being compromised. Every law firm should be implementing mobile device security.

2. Clear rules. Many organizations have unwritten rules about email passwords, backup rotation, device security, and document and contract security, but that is not enough. A “rule” in a business is a policy – a written document outlining the standards of the organization on a topic.

Smart organizations are implementing policy management programs that automate the delivery and ongoing acknowledgement of these policies to all employees. At least annually, employees should be reviewing operations policies, especially when it comes to security topics such as passwords, using Wi-Fi and acceptable-use policies. Without these standards and rules, law firms are living in the lawless Wild West, just hoping that the outlaws don’t catch up with them.

3. Client regulation adoption. Law firms have to be like chameleons, when it comes to security and technology operations. If law firms work with health care clients, they need to be compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

If a law firm works with banking clients, they should comply with banking cybersecurity regulations. If a law firm works with retail clients, they should be Payment Card Industry compliant. The list goes on, and it’s a huge blind spot for law firms. Regulations are becoming more encompassing with each new release, and law firms need to collaborate with a knowledgeable technology company that understands law firms and regulations.

4. Analytics and contract visibility. Business intelligence and analytics is becoming more important, especially when it comes to legal contracts and case management.

Good analytics help avoid blind spots that could disrupt or delay service to clients. Additionally, business intelligence helps to stay in front of the pack by understanding trends about what could occur and how to correct negative trends.

5. Communication mediums. Each type of communication must be looked at with an eye on security. Hackers can get into email, public Wi-Fi connections and chat programs. Not everything is as private as we think it should be. This huge blind spot can destroy a law firm’s reputation.

In law firms, sensitive email and computer hard drives must be encrypted; only private chat applications should be used; business class firewalls and end-point protection should be in place.

Many firms also want to implement log analysis systems that can detect anomalous behavior, such as an employee copying large amounts of data from a server share.

6. Ignorance. This comes down to a lack of knowledge. Sometimes, highly intelligent and secure organizations do some stupid things that compromise their security. One can’t expect their employees to just know how to respond to phishing or social engineering scams.

That’s why IT security training is important. All it takes is one small mistake to destroy the reputation and security of client and employee information at a law firm.

Anticipating these blind spots is the first step toward fixing them. Then call a reputable technology firm to partner with, and start closing the blind spots.

Todd Nielsen is chief strategy officer for JMark Business Solutions Inc. in Springfield. He can be reached at tnielsen@jmark.com.

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