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IT Security: It's Now or Never

BY Tom Gelbmann
September 01, 2003

Information technology security is a critical issue for all law firms. Yet, security initiatives are often dismissed as high cost/low return and put on the back burner. This low priority status persists despite the significant operational and financial impact a security breach would have on a firm. It is only when a major event such as the recent confluence of the Northeast blackout and the Blaster and SoBig worm attacks, or the nefarious actions of a disgruntled employee hit the public consciousness that attention rapidly re-focuses on security matters.

As the practice of law is perhaps the most information intensive of professions, we cannot avoid the implications of the digital age. The use of information technology in law firms has risen to the point where systems and technology serve as the nervous system of the firm. Loss of critical information systems and services could put the firm on life support. Even a thumbnail calculation on the financial impact of a security event that damaged systems and services would disclose a sizeable cost in terms of lost revenue, lost productivity, recovery costs and loss of client confidence.

In simple terms, if a firm loses its information systems for an extended period, it may be out of business. With this much riding on the availability of information technology, IT security is truly a now or never proposition.

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