Page 48 - Cyber Defense eMagazine December 2023

Do You Know Where Your Data Is? How Law

Firms Can Protect Their Most Valuable Asset

By John A. Smith, CSO, Conversant Group

If data is the new oil, this holds especially true for law firms as they are wholly dependent on the
information they store and maintain regarding their clients. Further, law firms have a fiduciary
responsibility to protect this sensitive information regarding cases and clients; and, their businesses are
wholly dependent on trust and reputation, which can be easily broken in the event of data loss. Despite
the significance the industry puts on proprietary data and information, it appears most law firms still aren’t
prioritizing how it is protected. A recent report issued by Conversant Group and the International Legal
Technology Association (ILTA) titled "Security at Issue: State of Cybersecurity in Law Firms" found that
only 11% of firms report data backups as a critical security control. In the event of a cyberattack like
ransomware, threat actors target backups in roughly 94% of cases and are successful in compromising
at least some data stores at least 68% of the time.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2023 Edition 48
Copyright © 2023, Cyber Defense Magazine. All rights reserved worldwide.