As we wrap up this series of Law Firm Cybersecurity Tips, remember that we’re always keeping an eye out and keeping you up-to-date on new threats to your law firm. For our final post in the series, we’ll discuss a very dangerous threat to law firms.
A highly destructive — to information as well as physical security — threat is the Advanced Persistent Attack 
(APT).
These threats come in several different forms. They are stealthy and determined in their attempts to compromise data. They can be simple, such as a rogue administrator account hiding in an obscure organizational unit in your Active Directory (you are checking who has membership to domain administrative and enterprise administrators, right?), ranging to the better-known Trojan-horse attacks. Some of these viruses sit on your computer or server silently collecting your data for months.
The Stuxnet computer worm is a famous example. While this threat was originally intended to target Iran’s nuclear capabilities, hackers discovered the source code and re-engineered it to use against individuals and corporations.
While APTs might seem like a far-off and unlikely threat to law firms, all hackers want to access your data, even if only to access your server for a few hours. Mitigation of APTs requires routine auditing and a security information and event management (SIEM) tool. These tools bring together several systems’ logs and analyze the data, giving IT administrators the big picture of the attack. Think of it as taking your car in for a tuneup and having a diagnostic test run.
There are many threats to privacy and security for corporate and personal data. Making some commonsense changes will help keep things more secure and instill peace of mind. Antivirus software alone is not enough, and good password policies are not enough. A layered approach with a well-informed user is the best defense a network has.
Parking your new car in a well-lit area and rolling up all your windows means nothing if you leave your door unlocked and the key in the ignition. Similarly, not investing in the right people, training resources and cybersecurity solutions, like endpoint protection, leaves you wide-open to attack.
This is the final post in a five-part series. Find the earlier posts here, here, here and here. Or download our CTO Mike Paul’s article “The Top 5 Cybersecurity Threats to Law Firms” and get even more information.
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While we work tirelessly to identify, report and defend clients from new cyberthreats, we are also continuously searching for our newest best-of-breed partners in cybersecurity and other practice areas. We have recently scored a big WIN with SentinelOne. They offer endpoint protection like no other. They identify threats by unusual and unexpected behavior instead of mere signature definitions. It is the first true replacement for antivirus, and we are proud to be their premier partner working with law firms. If you’re interested in providing your systems protection beyond what a mere antivirus application allows for, let us know!
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