Perhaps, more worrying for the legal sector is the fact that many law firms – some 40 per cent - were breached during the year without even knowing it. And the problem is not going away with an average of 10,000 intrusions every day at law firms with both large and small firms are equally at risk of being hacked, according to a new Logicforce study.

Law firms not compliant

Clearly there is much work for the legal sector to do as nearly all – a whopping 95 per cent - of assessed law firms were not compliant with their own data security policies and 100 per cent were not compliant with those of their clients.

Data

The  data from over 200 law firms, anonymous system monitoring data and results from on-site assessments also revealed that the degree of preparation and vigilance within the industry at large will continue to place many law firms at unnecessary risk of losing valuable client data such as trade secrets and intellectual property. It added, perhaps not surprisingly, that such breakdowns in security could result in financial losses for the targeted firms and their clients.

Security audits on the up

Approximately 40 per cent of law firms in the study underwent at least one client data security audit, and Logicforce said it expects this will rise to 60 per cent by the end of 2018.

Cyber security needs more attention

‘Ultimately law firms don’t have the resources or enough expertise to take on their security alone and we want to illustrate the areas where there needs to be more focus. We need to effectuate a shift in thinking from ‘it won’t happen to me’ to ‘it will happen to me’, and until that happens, cybersecurity will never be given the level of attention it deserves,’ said John Sweeney, President at Logicforce.