In today’s cyber-based work environment, law firms and insurance companies possess treasure troves of online data. Most of that information is quite sensitive and highly confidential. As the saying goes “the best defense is a good offense,” meaning that taking the proper precautions and safety measures will go a long way toward ensuring that the data and information entrusted to your firm stays secure and private.
Here are five fundamental and crucial ways to increase online data security at your firm or company:
Formal IT Policies
Your firm should have formal, written protocol for how cybersecurity is handled. This is truly the first line of defense for both law firms and insurance companies. Also note that these policies are not static: cybersecurity standards and defense mechanisms are constantly evolving so these formal policies should be re-evaluated on regular basis to ensure that they’re up to date and still best serve the needs of the firm and its current client roster.
Impeccable Standards
Your firm’s formal IT policies should be based on impeccable and up-to-date security standards. Utilize tools like encrypted cloud storage, two-factor authentication, encrypted email, laptop tracking technology, and intrusion detection and prevention software. Additionally, software should always be up-to-date. Outdated software is a huge liability and offers cybercriminals easy and often overlooked access into your firm’s online information and data.
Staff Training
All of these measures are for naught if your staff isn’t fully trained and then re-trained on a regular basis. Properly educating staff members is crucial for the success of any cybersecurity plan. Chances are that a breach will come from a misstep that a staff member has made—clicking on a bad link or phishing email is one of the most common breaches. Law firms are relentlessly targeted by cybercriminals who use the highly sensitive information they steal for their own economic gain. Ongoing, comprehensive training is crucial to a successful cybersecurity plan.
Incident Response Plan
Try as you might, security breaches are likely to happen. It really just depends how severe they are. It’s important to demonstrate to your clients that you’re ready with an effective response plan, if and when a breach occurs. Whether the incident was a result of data theft or simply a data leakage, prompt and effective action is critical. Having a robust and (most importantly) tested plan in place beforehand positions your firm to act immediately and help restore client confidence in your ability to continue serving their needs.
Competent Vendors
It’s important that any vendors you work with are also secure with effective cybersecurity measures in place. Even if you’re doing everything right, one bad apple can still spoil the bunch. Here at the Records Company we utilize a 128-bit encryption SSL for any health data transactions. This ensures that we’re not only HIPAA compliant but that your clients’ sensitive data is protected through several layers of loss prevention technology. To name a few of the many measures we use: state-of-the-art physical and digital security measures with dedicated security, encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention measures, and 100% United States-based file storage.
In closing, today’s largely online based business environment offers both challenges and opportunities for law firms and insurance companies. Having strong cyberattack mitigation policies in place like sound IT practices, ongoing employee education and training, and impeccable security standards are vital to your firm’s ongoing success. Having a fully developed and tested incident response plan is also key.
Using secure and competent vendors like us, The Records Company, can round out your security plan. If you’re tired of allocating ever-increasing levels of your staff’s time, effort, and abilities to the records retrieval process, give our service a try. It’s free to sign up for an account on our site, and you only pay when you submit a request—no contracts or hefty monthly fees to be paid here. Let us help you with records retrieval so you can focus on serving your clients and keeping your firm secure.