A report detailing the cyber vulnerabilities of U.S.-based law firms released by LOGICFORCE has found that a majority of firms are not only exposed in a wide variety of areas, but in many cases, unaware of intrusion attempts made against them by hackers. The findings were based on survey data from over 200 United States law firms, anonymous system monitoring data and results from their proprietary on-site Synthesis E-IT Secure assessments.
John Sweeney, LOGICFORCE President, said in a statement, “This report, which was compiled in the months leading up to the DLA Piper hack, details the state of security that is prevalent within the legal industry. The Scorecard is meant to be an objective measure of the state of preparedness of U.S.-based law firms against such attacks. 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.”
The Cybersecurity Scorecard details how 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. Such catastrophic breakdowns in security could result in insurmountable financial losses for the targeted firms and their clients, the report finds.
As hacking continues to escalate, corporations are becoming much more proactive with their data security initiatives and are auditing their law firms at an increasingly rigorous pace. Approximately 40% of law firms in the study underwent at least one client data security audit and LOGICFORCE predicts this will rise to 60% by the end of 2018.
Major findings of the report:
- An average of 10,000 intrusions occur every day at law firms
- Both large and small firms are equally at risk of being hacked
- 95% of assessed law firms were not compliant with their own data security policies and 100% were not compliant with those of their clients
- 40% of firms were breached without knowing it in 2016
Early copies of this report were provided to and covered by The American Lawyer, ABA Journal, Law360, LegalTech News, Corporate Counsel, and other industry outlets.
“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,” asserted Sweeney.
About LOGICFORCE
LOGICFORCE is a business and technology advisory dedicated to the legal market founded in 1995. With over 150 institutional law firm clients they consult in the areas of IT, Cyber Security, eDiscovery, Document Review, and Digital Forensic around the country. When law firms want to make IT a competitive advantage, improve security and financial performance they turn to us.