In the most recent Risk Outlook report by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, cybercrime was recognised as a new priority threat:
“Breach of confidentiality: information security and cybercrime
Keeping the affairs of clients confidential and secure is a key professional duty. Law firms need to be prepared for the increased risk to this duty that is presented by cybercrime. Criminals increasingly use the internet to target their victims. Cybercrime committed against law firms can be used to steal money, to facilitate identity theft or for industrial espionage. Our regulatory remit is primarily concerned with managing the risk that cybercrime presents to consumers. However, it also presents a wider risk to public confidence in the legal sector. For law firms, managing this risk is vital to their reputations and client relations.”
More and more increasingly, firms are being put under a duty to take cyber risks seriously. It is our view that the SRA will soon make specific regulations relating to cyber security to ensure that firms take these risks seriously. The Government recently launched Cyber Essentials, expecting that this will be adopted by all of the UK’s regulatory bodies.
We understand the risks surrounding legal firms and we know that professional services have been quoted as the 'number one target' for cybercrime. We want to work with firms and be in a position to respond to the growing risk, ensuring firms are prepared rather than holding firms to ransom on the back of new regulatory requirements.
We try to help educate firms about their current obligations and risks that firms face in an already competitive and challenging time for legal firms. We understand this and want to try to help firms through a sophisticated issue in as cost effective manner as possible: perhaps even being able to use cyber security compliance, such as Cyber Essentials as a competitive advantage.
We offer external solutions which include IT infrastructure penetration testing and information security, as well as internal solutions in a full training process with personnel management platform, ensuring your entire workforce are aware and prepared for cyber risk, from boardroom to basement. Training your management and staff to recognise risk and how to proactively manage it is the first step towards mitigation.
