Protect Your Practice
Protecting your law firm or corporate legal team against potential breaches is essential for maintaining not only a trustworthy reputation, but insuring that confidential information and client data is secure at all times. Some of the key vulnerabilities impacting the legal sector are out-of-date software, lack of cyber vigilance, and poorly configured systems.
As the legal sector is at growing risk of cyber crime, the need to properly secure your information has never been more important.
Practices must have an information management and security policy and should be accredited against Cyber Essentials.
Lexcel Standard V6.1
Security Landscape for Legal
The Legal sector is at growing risk of cyber crime and as firms continue to carry out daily operations in an increasingly digitised environment, the need to properly secure information and systems has never been more pressing. Some of the biggest risks include phishing, ransomware attacks, and data theft, all of which trigger substantial consequences for firms.
In recent years, a major UK firm dealt with an intrusion that led to losing 8% of their share value in less than an hour despite tacking swift action. While many Firms may have insurance and the capacity to recover from financial burdens, repercussions of a data breach effects reputation and client trust as well.
The Primary Threats
It is no surprise that the primary threat to the UK legal sector are cyber criminals with a financial motive. These individuals can vary from advanced, professional groups to small-scale single person attacks. More experienced cyber criminal services can also be brought, increasing the scale of cyber crime with indiscriminate targeting of thousands of organisations.
NCSC reports during 2023 found that there were increasing scenarios of "hackers-for-hire" who earn money through commissions, carrying out such activities for clients with the goal to secure information to gain an upper hand in business dealings or legal disputes. The activities of the hacker grants deniability of involvement for the third party client.
The Risk of Nation States
Many Law firms may deal with contracts and arrangements with sensitive clients such as the UK government & related institutions, or even locations that are hostile to the UK itself. Many foreign states have been identified as using criminal actors for securing their own national agenda, prosperity, or to disrupt professionals working on what that state disagrees with e.g. human rights or regime change.
Those firms dealing with such clients should always maintain a air-tight security posture to prevent against targeted attacks. Not only can a breach cause everlasting financial and reputational damage, but reduce trust in a firms capability to engage on a global stage.
Your Solution
Cyber Essentials is the go to certification for accessible cyber security best practice. Mandated by the UK government, Cyber Essentials & Cyber Essentials Plus is required to secure any business with any government institution , even if your firm is not UK based.
Unlike ISO 27001 and LOCS:23, implementation is required to achieve certification; and for large and small firms, is the perfect stepping stone in moving towards ISO 27001 certification.
Find out more on the need for Cyber Essentials and it's universal benefit for all organisations here.
Interested in how Blue Car Technologies assists organisations bolster their cyber security posture?
Contact: +44 1183 832 916 or info@bluecartechnologies.co.uk
