LPM South: Make your practice more secure from DPS Software
The danger to law firms from hackers and fraudsters has never been greater. As technology advances, so do criminals, who find new ways to target victims and new vulnerabilities to take advantage of. And Law Firms are a key target.
Law Firms inevitably hold a vast amount of confidential data. That could be a person’s sensitive personal data, or even commercially sensitive information. Criminals will look to target law firms to get hold of this data or even hold it to ransom. So, you need to ensure that you have adequate protection in place.
Imagine what would happen if you were the victim of an attack. If you had to pay a ransom to access your data, would you do it? Would you be strong and refuse to pay, but at the same time losing money for every minute that you don’t have access to that data? It is a terrible predicament to be in, but you should never pay the ransom and should always follow the advice of the police in such a situation.
Perhaps an even worse situation is if a fraudster manages to infiltrate your firm and gains enough data to be able to steal a client’s identity or manages to convince you or a client to transfer them a sum of money. Not only would you be risking a hefty fine from the ICO, but your firm’s reputation would also take a battering.
So, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that having appropriate security measures in place is vitally important.
One of the biggest attack methods a hacker is likely to use, and one that you will almost certainly have been on the receiving end of, is the phishing email. If you don’t know what a phishing email is, it is when an attacker pretends to be somebody else to get you to divulge some kind of sensitive information or to get you to download an infected attachment or click on a malicious link.
Think Nigerian Princes, or an old lady you’ve never heard off wanting to leave you millions in her will. That kind of thing. But these emails are getting more and more sophisticated. You will now see hackers spoofing another company’s emails, so that their email looks exactly the same, except the link downloads some kind of malware to your machine.
It is particularly dangerous when an attacker spoofs your emails. There are cases where hackers have managed to defraud clients out of thousands of pounds by pretending to be their lawyer and informing them of a change in bank details. That is why it is important to always check where a link directs you to before clicking on it. It is also advisable to include in your email signature a warning that you will never notify clients of a change in bank details via email.
Another way to prevent this is to communicate with your clients via a secure channel such as a client portal. MyLegalSpace and companion app, SafeChat from DPS Software enable you to do just this. Clients can contact you, complete and sign forms, check their case progress and more all 100% secure in the knowledge that they are contacting their solicitors and all from their mobile phone. To top it all off, the conversation is saved in the file history and if a form has been filled in, your data in DPS is automatically updated. Secure AND efficient.
DPS Software is ISO27001 accredited at a company level as well as being IASME GDPR accredited and holding the Cyber Essentials accreditation. IN addition to this, we are very proud that DPS Spitfire has passed the BSI CREST – Simulated Target Attack and Response (STAR) testing. The testing was most rigorous as it was for local and national government departments including the Ministry of Justice.
To find out more about how your practice can be more secure, come and visit DPS Software at LPM South on Monday 10th February. IF you can’t wait until then, take a look at our website – www.dpssoftware.co.uk or give us a call on 020 8804 1022.
