While no type of business is immune to hackers today, law firms in particular have found themselves to be especially vulnerable and susceptible to criminal cyber activity, with firms of all sizes experiencing more attempted—and many times successful—cyber attacks from malicious outsiders and data compromise events stemming from firm employees. At the same time, the scope of potential legal liability exposure faced by law firms in connection with data compromise events has also expanded rapidly as well. As such, firms must take proactive measures to shield client data from unauthorized access and acquisition, which can be accomplished through the implementation of several key data security measures as part of an overall cyber risk management program. Executed properly, effective law firm cybersecurity measures can protect law firms not only from experiencing a catastrophic data breach incident, but from substantial potential liability exposure as well.

Originally published in the Spring 2020 edition (Vol. 14, Issue 1) of the OACTA Quarterly Review.