Law Technology Today From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
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The ever-increasing emphasis on both collaboration and security presents today’s law firm with a growing challenge – How do you implement both in such a way that documents can be shared effortlessly across devices while still controlling access to them and not compromising the security of the internal DMS environment?
Comments were added to the ABA Model Rules regarding an attorney’s ethical responsibility to understand technology relevant to his practice and to take reasonable means of protecting client data. Additionally, any law firm with health care or financial services clients may also be subject to regulatory requirements such as those dictated by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). Although not every firm has to comply with these regulatory requirements, they still may face demands from their clients. The second annual ALM Intelligence Law Firm Cybersecurity Survey indicated that “more than 70% of firms report that their clients have exerted pressure on them to increase internal security.”
As a result, one topic brought to the forefront is encryption. Put simply, encryption means encoding information in such a way that only those authorized can decode it. There are a number of ways encryption technology can be implemented, many of which are quite complex. The challenge facing law firms is to find a technology that can ensure the security of client information without being so complicated that it is difficult to implement or use. Firms may be required to encrypt data both when it is being transmitted and when it is at rest.
Another topic that has been a focus for several years is collaboration and sharing. Email has become the most common method of communication, but it is not a secure way to transmit sensitive or confidential information. There are many ways that data can be encrypted in transit but the simplest products to implement and use are those that integrate directly with Outlook, making it easy to encrypt attachments on the fly prior to sending messages. Some products on the market may also include the ability to clean metadata as well as some digital rights management features that remove the ability to print or modify attachments on the fly during the send process.
Worldox Connect empowers professionals to collaborate on files without boundaries. Due to its seamless and secure linking capabilities, Worldox Connect is ideal for top law and financial firms, or any organization that depends on the security of private information.
Learn more: Worldox Connect Adds Secure Document Sharing
