4 cybersecurity stats that every lawyer should know
Cyber-attacks on the legal sector are on the rise. Legal practices are big targets for hackers due to their access to sensitive information, and severe lack of security.
Here are four statistics that ring alarm bells in the industry:
Number one: One in four law firms have experienced a security breach of some kind. Even more have had malware or viruses according to a 2019 American Bar Association survey.
Number two: Data breaches cost your local small practice an estimated average of $36,000 dollars. To put in perspective, a new legal assistant salary for the year would costs the firm about the same price. Also, at least 31% of their clients terminate their relationship with the firm afterwards.
Number three: 61% of ransomware victims in the legal sector were Law Firms in 2020. It is the highest of the legal profession, with Courts, and Legal Services coming in second.
Number four: 94% of malware and ransomware attacks were delivered by email in 2020. There are new malware and viruses being discovered every day.
The bottom line
Law firms pose a higher risk for data leaks due to their business nature of storing and sharing sensitive information. ExchangeDefender provides affordable email security, email archiving, and email continuity solutions to the legal industry. One of our largest client bases, the legal industry relies on ExchangeDefender to mitigate risks of cyber and email attacks.
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Law firms big target for hackers, but why?
Law firms are having a hard time adopting new technologies, and it’s causing them to become soft targets for hackers. The legal industry is vulnerable to cyber-attacks more than most other industries for several reasons. To be fair, 7 out of 10 businesses are unprepared to deal with a cyber-attack. For cyber criminals, the legal sector is a very lucrative target – and today, we’re going to explore the main reasons why cyber-attacks are on the rise.
Cybersecurity is not a priority
First, law firms have not really taken cybersecurity that seriously, it is more like an after-thought despite the rise in cyber-attacks. It’s not that lawyers don’t believe in security; it is just that it is not currently a priority. The cyber-attacks that are used the most against law firms are ransomware, malware, phishing scams, data breaches, and hacked email accounts. Hackers know that lawyers make great money, and would pay any ransom to get their data back to save their practice. Phishing scams are rising incredibly this year due to its success rate of stealing login and account information. Data breaches are normally a result of a hacked email which has been accessed (in many cases) by phishing scams, or superficial passwords.
Valuable information is worth stealing
Second, law firms handle a lot of sensitive information, and often information that could be incriminating. Imagine large quantities of valuable and quality documents filled with business strategies, financial information, and health information available at the fingertips of a cybercriminal. For hackers, law firms hold a gold mine of information that can be resold on the black market for high profit. Unfortunately, only a third of lawyers use an encryption software to secure their information. Only 25% of law firms use two-factor authentication to verify user identification.
Their website is not secured
Have you ever gone to a website and realized that it was “unsecured”, and got this uneasy feeling? When a website is not secured, it is not providing a secure connection to its visitors. Unsecured websites are prime targets for hackers because it’s easy to infiltrate or intercept information that is transmitted through the website. Legal firms with websites that are labeled “unsecured” should immediately fix this issue by gaining an SSL certificate, to ensure an encrypted (secure) connection.
Untrained employees
The likelihood of an untrained employee opening a spear-phishing email is about 70%. This staggering majority makes it easier for hackers to gain access to valuable information. In fact, it is one of the biggest threats to any law firm as 90% of all data breaches are caused by an employee mistake. It is critical that the legal industry makes security training a priority, since hackers target a firm’s weakest link – its people.
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