Addressing Cybersecurity Challenges For Law Firms

Summary: The costs of neglecting a law firm’s cybersecurity are high, and attorneys must plan comprehensively about their statutory obligations to safeguard their data. While the Bar Council of India has a code of conduct for law firms, the companies in this industry must also determine their own responsibilities and risk mitigation strategies vis-à-vis data protection in the digital age.

Unlike the cybersecurity incidents in the other industries, law firm data thefts go unreported in media or are not publicly disclosed due to various reasons. However, they are real and growing threats. Operating in a multifaceted and always-evolving environment, law firms manage several projects for their clients, including cases that involve crimes, civil trials, property disputes, fraudulent practices and medical malpractices.

Unlike the cybersecurity incidents in the other industries, law firm data thefts go unreported in media or are not publicly disclosed due to various reasons. However, they are real and growing threats. Operating in a multifaceted and always-evolving environment, law firms manage several projects for their clients, including cases that involve crimes, civil trials, property disputes, fraudulent practices and medical malpractices.

Unlike the cybersecurity incidents in the other industries, law firm data thefts go unreported in media or are not publicly disclosed due to various reasons. However, they are real and growing threats. Operating in a multifaceted and always-evolving environment, law firms manage several projects for their clients, including cases that involve crimes, civil trials, property disputes, fraudulent practices and medical malpractices.

Maintaining cyber hygiene

For the security of online connectivity and digital assets, it is essential to learn from previous experience. Past incidents have shown that organisations can prevent data breaches and attacks on their networks by deploying a few basic measures.Some of the best practices in this regard include:

• Using unique, complex passwords and changing them frequently
• Ensuring the security of data by regularly backing it up
• Applying the principle of least privilege to restrict staff access to critical online databases and systems
• Ensuring that privileged accounts are deleted soon after people using them leave the organisation Implementing essential security patches without delays
• Keeping applications and software updated to their most current versions – this is necessary because cybercriminals continuously develop new ways to break through networks, and a law firm must be equally active at optimising its defenses

Failure to use such measures increases the possibilities of cyber threats. A successful online attack on a law company’s network or digital devices not only enables unauthorised access to confidential case data but also leads to regulatory action against the firm. From the loss of their fee and reputation to the consequent loss of clientele, cyber incidents can cause significant damages to any law firm.

Leveraging custom technology to enhance security for law firms

Although the basic security practices mentioned above are acceptable cyber hygiene measures, they may not be enough to check sophisticated cyber threats.

With its suite of advanced cybersecurity solutions, Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) has helped its customers safeguard their data and stay secure against threats that cannot be managed with basic precautions. In one such deployment, a manufacturing company protected its employees from phishing attacks with TTBS Email Security solution. The facility simplified the management’s security 2 This document is under copyright of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTL). The information contained in this document is strictly confidential and is meant only for the recipient. This document shall remain the property of TTL and must not be disclosed in writing, via email in part or full without explicit prior written permission from TTL Corporate. policies through a single orchestration console, rendering data collected from multiple sources in a unified interface.

Here’s more about our cybersecurity solutions tailored to help law firms of any size safeguard their IT landscape and protect sensitive information:

Email Security

Our cloud-based Email Security safeguards all email platforms, including Microsoft Exchange, Office 365 and on-premises servers. For this solution, TTBS employs FirstWave Cloud Technology’s ESPTM email software technology, Cisco-based ESA/IronPort and AMP technologies that have been highly rated by Gartner, IDC & Radicati.

By using the TTBS Email Security, your law firm can secure its online correspondence against phishing, malware, viruses, and ransomware. It also filters out spam emails and successfully counters advanced persistent threats, including spear phishing, whaling, typo domain, and spoofing attacks. The solution is easy to deploy and works quietly in the background while also offering analytical reports on the threats that it overcomes.

Endpoint Security

TTBS Endpoint Security enables your law firm to secure its digital devices’ endpoints, protecting them from a range of cyberattacks, including ransomware, malware, spyware, and phishing. It comes with inbuilt web filtering, email filtering, antivirus, and firewall service

With this endpoint protection, attorneys can work on their personal devices from anywhere without the risks of cyberattacks. It helps them keep their data safe and avoid the costly downtime that results from compromises on the device’s operating system.

TTBS Endpoint Security is a cost-effective solution that is simple to configure and manage without any IT expertise.

Multifactor Authentication

By enabling multifactor authentication (MFA) for access to online accounts and custom software, law firms can take an additional step towards optimising their security.

TTBS’s MFA offers zero-trust security to attorneys for improving their access to devices and applications used in legal operations. With quick and easy setup, it allows your firm to choose the authentication methods that suit your workflows. Verifying authorised user identity helps you prevent hackers from accessing the servers, networks and applications that are usually protected only by a password.

TTBS MFA lets you monitor the integrity of your managed and unmanaged devices and deploy customised cybersecurity policies. It makes remote access secure without a device agent and provides a user-friendly single sign-on or SSO to authorised users.

Virtual Firewall

With firewall security for your company’s network, you can check all kinds of traffic, including applications, web content accessed and cyber threats.

The TTBS Virtual Firewall reduces response times against potential online attacks by keeping you abreast of unknown threats and streamlining the network setup. To give you robust control over your applications and block malicious threats, the Virtual Firewall combines application awareness with a deep-packet inspection. You can also customise security controls as per your law firm’s requirement.

Web Security

TTBS Web Security offers comprehensive visibility into online activities on your employees’ digital devices across locations – both on and off the LAN. It eliminates threats before they reach network endpoints.

This cybersecurity solution can determine the intent of different web requests, URLs, and files. They are routed, blocked, or sent for further inspection depending on how safe or malicious they are.

Besides facilitating policy implementation with comprehensive reports, TTBS Web Security is easy and non-intrusive to use across devices.

Conclusion

Law firms hold gigabytes of critical data comprising details of their clients and even government agencies. They are trusted to keep it secure. By deploying robust cybersecurity measures that give a real-time picture of their traffic patterns and networks, they can eliminate the blind spots in their IT structure and prevent data breaches. It also helps them to simplify audits and reduce compliance costs. With a secure IT framework, they can deploy added digital technologies confidently.

At Tata Tele Business Services, we help organisations build a reliable and resilient digital world. Our team combines its technology expertise and industry experience to balance privacy, security, and ethics.

To know more about our cybersecurity solutions, connect with us on 1800-266-1800.