An Austrian law student has won a legal challenge over the US safe harbour scheme, in a decision which will impact some 4,000 US companies which transferred personal information across the Atlantic.
Hacked off with cyber risk? You may be…
Carter Perry Bailey’s Mark Aizlewood and Simon Thomas highlight the threat to law firms.
At the time of writing, news arrived that car owners in the US have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler and a dashboard computer manufacturer after hackers used a laptop computer to take control of a Jeep being driven on a St Louis highway, thus also precipitating a product recall and illustrating why cyber risk is widely considered to be the fastest-growing threat to businesses.
A leading global insurer reports that it presents the ‘biggest, most systemic risk’ faced by the market in over 40 years. Law firms are not immune. Continue reading “Hacked off with cyber risk? You may be…”
Beating ‘Friday afternoon’ fraud
Sophisticated criminals are increasingly targeting firms of solicitors with so-called ‘Friday afternoon’ frauds.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) reported in March that it is receiving four reports a month of solicitors falling victim to these scams, which tend to involve a combination of identity fraud and cyber techniques, such as hacking and spear phishing.
The term Friday afternoon fraud has helped raise the profile of these types of scam – but it is important to note that they are certainly not confined to Friday afternoons, so firms and their employees must be vigilant at all times. Continue reading “Beating ‘Friday afternoon’ fraud”
We need to talk… about technology: Shepherds’ CEO Gibb on keeping pace with technology
Innovation lies at the core of technology. Evolution and improvement in the ways we design and use basic utilities and infrastructure such as telecoms, water and energy are key to ensuring perennial and adaptable services for an ever-growing global population.
We need to talk… about technology
Shepherd and Wedderburn’s Stephen Gibb argues that the law must keep pace with change when it comes to connected networks
Innovation lies at the core of technology. Evolution and improvement in the ways we design and use basic utilities and infrastructure such as telecoms, water and energy are key to ensuring perennial and adaptable services for an ever-growing global population.
No more weak links – elite law firms unite to fight cyber security threat
It has long been a gripe among major clients – in particular banks – that law firms are the chink in the armour against the growing barrage of cyber attacks. In response, some of the world’s top law firms are banding together to form a cyber security alliance to share intelligence on threats, specific attacks and best practice.
Continue reading “No more weak links – elite law firms unite to fight cyber security threat”
Insight report on cyber security – Anatomy of a breach
With breaches impossible to stop, companies are focusing on managing the huge risks of a major cyber incident. We teamed up with PwC to gauge the client response.
In cyber security circles, it has already become a hoary cliché to claim that there are two types of companies: those that have been breached and those that have yet to discover they have been breached. This rang particularly true this year when JPMorgan revealed that 76 million households and eight million small businesses were exposed to its data breach over the summer.
Continue reading “Insight report on cyber security – Anatomy of a breach”
Professional indemnity: PI insurance – dos and don’ts
Marsh’s Sandra Neilson-Moore reflects on the process of applying for professional indemnity insurance, with some added thoughts on cyber liability
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance is a crucial component of the business risk management ‘toolkit’ of any law firm. In this country of course it is compulsory that a minimum amount of such insurance is purchased. This minimum amount is quite small (and may yet become smaller still), but the fact of the matter is that any sensible law firm/practising solicitor will want to purchase as much coverage, with as broad a scope of protection, as they can reasonably afford, and which they believe will meet their needs, and the needs and expectations of their clients.
Continue reading “Professional indemnity: PI insurance – dos and don’ts”
Mobile cyber-security – Pay as You Go
Mobile technology has enabled today’s lawyers to be more responsive to clients’ needs than ever before but brings added risk of cybersecurity breaches. How are law firms coping with the threats?
Our recent risk management survey, published in March, provided an insight into the level of concern that breaches of IT and data security raise within law firms. Every year since 2008, our annual survey has identified IT/data security breaches as the most significant threat to law firms in terms of actual damage caused and the likelihood of that damage occurring. No firm has fallen foul of a serious reported breach to date but some anecdotal horrors recounting the blasé approach of some lawyers to holding sensitive client data on mobile devices suggests such an outcome is merely a matter of time.
Here be monsters – will LPOs help clients find the threats in the data jungle?
From disclosure to global investigations, companies are being forced to search an expanding jungle of data for threats. Legal Business teamed up with Clutch Group to find out if clients believe LPOs will aid the hunt
Disaggregation. If someone wanted to identify a keyword to describe what legal process outsourcers (LPOs) do (and identifying keywords and clauses is part of what they do), this word would have to be top of the list. It’s a buzzword that forms a big part of the dialogue used by proponents of legal process outsourcing, be they industry insiders or the clients themselves, and its meaning applies not only to the work they do, but to the effect that LPOs, and other alternative sources of legal work, could have on the legal sector as a whole.
Continue reading “Here be monsters – will LPOs help clients find the threats in the data jungle?”