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Information Security: The Human Factor

By Michael Kemps and Kimberly Pease
April 02, 2017

No one can deny that cyberattacks are the new norm. Such risks will increasingly challenge our ability to operate our businesses. In the world of cybercrime, everyone — from individuals to nation-states — is a target. However, some targets are more alluring than others.

Legal, accounting and other professional firms are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals and hackers who are intent on accessing the vast stores of data with which they are entrusted. Indeed, hackers focus a greater percentage of their attacks on the financial services and health care industries than other areas because of the large amounts of data they hold. But attacks are not limited to such firms. According to an Osterman Research Survey Report from August 2016, nearly 80% of businesses were attacked in some way in the past year; 39% with ransomware.

As an industry, legal professionals are the trusted advisers to large and small companies and often have access to closely held secrets, intellectual property, personally identifiable information (PII) and other data relating to the private lives of others. This savory (and sometimes unsavory) information is attractive to cybercriminals. Information is a valuable asset and may be sold for astonishing financial sums (and, sometimes, astonishingly small sums — the average ransom is below $1,000 according to the same Osterman study).

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