Business Critical: Cyber Securing Mobile Messaging in the Law Firm Tech Stack
Law firms are custodians of vast amounts of sensitive data and valuable information. This treasure trove of financial and personally identifiable information makes the legal sector a prime target for cybercriminals. And today, more and more bad actors are taking aim at this target as digital technology and new hybrid and remote working norms continue to transform operations and workflows in this sector. In such an environment, cybersecurity is no longer siloed in the IT department. It is now an enterprise-wide matter that must be prioritized when it comes to the adoption of any and all business-critical technologies including mobile messaging and collaboration technologies.
As cyberthreats continue to increase, staying one step ahead of cybercriminals to safeguard data and information is a continuing operational challenge for law firms. In fact, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) 2021 Legal Technology Survey Report found that 25% of respondents reported their firms had experienced a data breach at some time. The survey also revealed the significant consequences of data breaches with respondents reporting downtime/loss of billable hours (36%), consulting fees for repair (31%), destruction or loss of files (13%) and replacement of hardware/software (18%).
The cost of data breaches continues to rise in every sector. IBM’s most recent Cost of A Data Breach Report revealed that data breaches are costlier than ever before with the global average cost of a data breach reaching an all-time high of $4.35 million.
Beyond the financial ramifications, data breaches also negatively impact a firm’s client relationships and reputation. Legal firms experiencing a data breach stand to lose business as clients migrate to firms they feel are more cyber secure and contend with reputational harm that can linger for years to come.
The importance of safeguarding data also extends to a professional imperative for attorneys. The ABA’s 2021 Tech Report highlighted that “attorneys have ethical and common law duties to take competent and reasonable measures to safeguard information relating to clients and also often have contractual and regulatory duties to protect confidential information.”
These statistics, impacts and common law duties paint a picture of how critical it is for law firms to adopt mobile messaging and collaboration technology that ensures data is secure and compliance is maintained.
Today, strengthening cybersecurity extends beyond strong passwords, firewalls and updating programs and systems regularly. As law firms adopt technology to support remote and hybrid work, cyber secure, end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration solutions are a business-critical essential for protecting sensitive and confidential data.
Legal firms need a highly secure and reliable mobile messaging solution that is designed to address their security, compliance and communication challenges. A solution like NetSfere that features secure transmission and device-to-device encryption technology ensures sensitive data is fully protected and private. When firm and client data are protected like this, communication and collaboration is free flowing and productive, without risk of compromising data security or compliance.
Maintaining a cybersecure law firm in an environment of growing and evolving cyberthreats is now less about tech support and more about the tech stack. Today, NetSfere’s secure, end-to-end encrypted mobile messaging platform is a mission-critical part of any cybersecure tech stack.