Cybercriminals have been on a rampage in the past few months, and law firms have proven to be among the most attractive targets. A study from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) involving forty practices found that twenty-three law firms were directly targeted, causing them to lose a combined total of £4 million (more than 5 million dollars) of client money. Also, the survey revealed that 25% of law firms lack strong mechanisms for encrypting digital devices, and at least half of law firms permit the unrestricted use of unencrypted data storage solutions like Box, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Therefore, it is no surprise that 75% of law firms have reported data breaches following successful cyberattacks.

In addition, law firms are finding it challenging to protect themselves from cyberattacks. Modern cybercriminals have become more sophisticated in their tactics, coded malware programs, and technologies. Cybercrime has become industrialized as hackers continue to leverage complex operations, complete with budgets for researching and developing more destructive malware. For example, notorious ransomware gangs now operate ransom as a service affiliate programs where they can lease ransomware kits to individual operators for a cut of the spoils. Thus, law firms continue facing numerous cyber risks, especially due to the large amounts of client personal data and finances they manage.

Now the million-dollar question is, what does this mean for law firms? As the end of the first half of 2022 draws near, law firms must ascertain that they are doing everything possible to secure their client’s data, assets and protect the firm’s reputation. However, it is more important that law firms work with trusted

software suppliers and technology partners to achieve high levels of protection. Additionally, law firms need to consider the bigger picture by understanding the current cyber threats and what a cyberattack can do to the reputation of their law firms. 

The next section looks at the current state of cybersecurity in the legal industry and why law firms need the Grapheene solution now more than ever.

Cybersecurity in the Legal Sector

Law firms form a prime target for attacks due to various reasons. First, small- and medium-sized law firms are springing up due to an increased demand for legal services. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of start-up law organizations have the resources and capabilities required to identify and thwart attacks. Attackers are more likely to target law firms lacking the necessary resources to overcome cyber challenges. It is also important to note that more people are working from home following a deadly pandemic that continues to ravage the world. Thousands of attorneys bring critical information home without proper security set in place. . Undoubtedly, this has led to an increase in attacks and data breaches.

The survey results presented in the 2020 ABA Legal Technology Report revealed that only 43% use robust file encryption methods to encrypt client data and information. This is an alarming trend, given that law firms operate the most sensitive information and client data compared to organizations in other industries. The work of most lawyers is confidential and privileged in nature, and failing to encrypt their files makes them exceptionally lucrative targets. In addition, many attorneys are more likely to pay a ransom to recover sensitive information encrypted in a ransomware attack, which underscores the dire need to implement protective measures like encryption. 

Law firms have also recorded increased cyber threats in the last year. For example, in the first quarter of 2021, 24.9% of all ransomware attacks targeted small- and medium-sized law firms. Also, a global survey found that the networks of 15% of law firms worldwide have already been compromised, and all firms responding to the survey have been subjected to some threat activities. Cybersecurity must be at the forefront of any attorney in light of these and other cyber threats targeting law firms. Thus, protection measures like encryption are imperative to preserve client privacy, confidentiality, and data security.

Why Your Law Firm Needs Grapheene

Legal teams play a crucial role in the business world. Law firms are central to supporting business success, from executing contracts to finalizing merger and acquisition transactions. Yet, on the downside, most of the available technological solutions make it an uphill task for lawyers and legal staff to manage sensitive, content-based, and complicated legal workflows. Fortunately, the Grapheene security and key management platform can enable your law firm to transfer files and store highly-sensitive data securely while complying with existing privacy standards such as GDPR and CCPA.  

Grapheene is an encryption solution designed to protect your privacy from breaches. In particular, Grapheene can protect your law firm from data breaches through strong encryption mechanisms. Unlike other cryptographic solutions, Grapheene is an off-the-shel solution that does not require your firm to configure the encryption algorithms. Instead, Grapheene leverages the most advanced encryption algorithms that can’t be broken, assuring your clients’ data integrity, availability, and confidentiality. 

Moreover, the Grapheene encryption solution is highly scalable to support your business’s expansion and growth goals. As your law firm collects more data from an increasing clientele base, Grapheene ensures that it is fully encrypted without the need for deploying other encryption solutions. Also, the Grapheene ultra-low latency can scale up to thousands of encryption requests per second, thus ensuring seamless encryption across all your law firm’s applications and environments. 

Furthermore, compliance with numerous regulations is often a challenge for many law firms. Fortunately, the Grapheene platform takes care of that. Choosing Grapheene as your preferred encryption platform enables rapid compliance with multiple regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, and PCI DSS. For example, the Grapheene application-layer encryption feature allows your law firm to use fully encrypted applications, which extends the same encryption to information shared or stored using those applications. Grapheene also encrypts data by default, thus enabling compliance with regulations that mandate full data encryption. You can also easily meet and demonstrate compliance through Grapheene’s automatic audit and access logs.

Benefits of Grapheene to Law Firms

One of the primary benefits of Grapheene to law firms is that it promises the development of highly secure applications. Most law firms operate custom software and applications designed and developed to meet their specific needs. Due to legal technology’s privacy and security requirements, developing highly secure applications is crucial. On that note, Grapheene enables developers to code fully encrypted applications even if they lack the necessary knowledge and expertise in digital cryptography. 

Particularly, Grapheene is an SDK-augmented cloud service that takes care of encryption configurations, such as initialization vectors, key generation, and choice of cryptographic algorithms. At the same time, Grapheene keeps track of the organization of encryption keys and other cryptographic operations. As a result, your law firm’s employees can determine where to store the encryption keys and sensitive data. Additional benefits of Grapheene solution to law firms include:

• Designed by security experts: Grapheene founders comprise cybersecurity veterans whose sole mission is to enhance digital security and privacy on the internet. Matt Gagliardo, CTO at Grapheene and former lead engineer at Twilio, said, “we made Grapheene so that any developer can secure data with world-class encryption in minutes.” Therefore, your law firm can count on Grapheene to provide world-class security and encryption services. 

• Enhanced data protection: Data breaches are rife in the legal industry. Hackers target law firms indiscriminately due to motivations like access to highly-confidential information and huge monetary rewards. Despite this, Grapheene permits your law firm to integrate all your applications with the strongest encryption and highest level of data security. In addition, using Grapheene encryption ensures that only your firm’s authorized staff members can access and view your crown jewels.

• Maintaining compliance: The current penalties for violating GDPR can amount to up to £20 million or 4% of your annual turnover, whichever is higher. Other regulations also come with stringent penalties for non-compliance, most of which can put your law firm out of business. Luckily, Grapheene can solve of your law firm’s compliance challenges. For example, your firm can use Grapheene to encrypt specific data, such as health and personal information. In doing so,  your data is unreadable even by employees with direct access to your law firm’s data backup, databases, and servers. Consequently, Grapheene’s easy audits simplify the compliance process significantly. 

• Cost-effective and easy to implement: Grapheene is an intuitive solution that is easy to implement. It also features a mix of APIs, cloud services, and software SDKs to enable your developers to implement robust data protection measures. As a result, these capabilities reduce the costs of developing your law firm’s applications and the cost of performing security audits. Also, the Grapheene solution is compatible with any app or environment and assures seamless encryption across your firm’s IT ecosystem. These and many other benefits positions Grapheene as the encryption platform of choice for all law firms.