Data Loss Prevention in Legal

When it comes to DLP, security leaders have hundreds – if not thousands – of networks and endpoints to monitor and lock down. And, while devices and file sharing applications are on everyone’s radar, when asked what threat vector they’re most concerned about protecting, security leaders said email. 

It makes sense. 

Over 306.4 billion emails were sent and received in 2020 and employees spend 40% of their time on email. Accidents happen. 

But a simple mistake can cause big problems, especially with strict data privacy laws like the GDPR and American Bar Association Rule 1.6. Of course, individual clients may have their own regulatory requests, too.

Unfortunately, accidents happen a lot more frequently than security leaders estimate.

So, why do employees make mistakes at work that compromise security? According to employees, the top three reasons are: stress, fatigue, and distraction.

And, while many firms are slowly transitioning back to the office, others are adopting permanent remote and hybrid working environments. Unfortunately, as documents and files continue being shared and accessed from different locations, potential security risks increase.

This is especially the case since 15% of employees working in the legal sector don’t think their company has the policies and procedures in place to allow them to work safely both remotely and in the office. Worse still, 44% of employees working in the legal and professional services industries say they’re less likely to follow safe data practices when working remotely.

Our research shows that, across industries, security leaders are most worried about losing customers and their trust and lost data in the aftermath of a breach.

But, if you break that data down even further and isolate security leaders working in legal and professional services specifically, you can see a stark difference. Instead of losing customer trust and lost data, they’re more than three times as likely to say that their top concern is revenue loss.

It makes sense. A breach sends a bad signal to existing and potential clients, which can impact the firm’s bottom line. 

Mark Parr, Global Director of IT at HFW said it best, “You’re only going to win more work if you’re reputable. And you’re only going to be reputable if you demonstrate you have a strong information security framework”.

Law firms like Dentons, DAC Beachcroft, Clifford Chance, and Clyde & Co trust Tessian to keep their critical client and employee data safe. Across two solutions, Tessian automatically detects and prevents misdirected emails, mistattached files, and unauthorized emails and puts data at security leaders’ fingertips.  No rules required. 

Better still, Tessian helps improve employees’ security reflexes long-term with in-the-moment warnings that reinforce security policies while nudging them towards safer behavior over time. And, with employee risk scores that update automatically, security leaders get a bird’s eye view of their most risky and at-risk employees.

It’s the only solution that offers protection, training, and risk analytics all in one platform, giving security leaders a clear picture of their organization’s risk and the tools needed to reduce that risk.