Why does my law practice need cyber cover?
Law practices hold large amounts of sensitive information about clients and others which may be accessible electronically. At the same time, data is an increasingly valuable resource that is likely to be targeted or inadvertently disclosed through security breaches. Solicitors’ duty of care requires maintenance of client confidentiality, and law practices have an obligation to protect confidential and sensitive information and to respond quickly and appropriately where there is a risk that this information has been or may be disclosed. For this reason, crisis assistance is an important aspect of the cyber risk policy.
In addition, many law practices are becoming increasingly reliant on the ongoing availability of computer systems and networked technology for their day to day activities, meaning the consequences of a cyber-attack resulting in a firm’s computer systems being damaged or taken offline could be severe.
The cyber risk policy will respond to cyber events such as ransomware and other disruption attacks. However, it is important to note that the cyber risk policy will not respond to problems unrelated to a cyber event which arise through failure to maintain a computer and/or network.
It is prudent for law practices to ensure that up-to-date antivirus protection is in place, and to undertake frequent back-ups to ensure data can be restored in the event of an uncontained cyber-attack.
