66% of US law firms reported a breach in 2016

The majority of US-based law firms are not only exposed in a wide variety of areas, but in many cases, unaware of intrusion attempts. These findings were based on Logicforce survey data from over 200 law firms, anonymous system monitoring data and results from their on-site assessments.

The degree of preparation and vigilance within the industry at large will continue to place many law firms at unnecessary risk of losing valuable client data such as trade secrets and intellectual property. Such breakdowns in security could result in financial losses for the targeted firms and their clients.

Approximately 40% of law firms in the study underwent at least one client data security audit, and Logicforce predicts this will rise to 60% by the end of 2018.

Key findings

• An average of 10,000 intrusions occur every day at law firms
• Both large and small firms are equally at risk of being hacked
• 95% of assessed law firms were not compliant with their own data security policies and 100% were not compliant with those of their clients
• 40% of firms were breached without knowing it in 2016.

“Ultimately law firms don’t have the resources or enough expertise to take on their security alone and we want to illustrate the areas where there needs to be more focus. We need to effectuate a shift in thinking from ‘it won’t happen to me’ to ‘it will happen to me’, and until that happens, cybersecurity will never be given the level of attention it deserves,” said John Sweeney, President at Logicforce.