How secure are your IT systems?

As law firms and in-house legal departments embrace technology in pursuit of greater efficiency, they must consider the security implications of their choices. By André Meyer

Security is a subject that is often discussed as lawyers consider bringing cloud computing into their working life. Most believe their computer systems and way of working render their current environment secure. However this may be far from the truth.

There is a perception that moving data to the cloud will weaken data security and increase the likelihood of being hacked. Instead, the opposite will often be true. Security has a much wider meaning and requires technical and operational processes to work together. Security is not a destination it is a journey.

Today’s lawyers use computers to draft documents, send and receive emails and record their time costs and disbursements for billing purposes. If any of these business functions cannot be performed, it is a security risk to the business. This differs from the perception of most lawyers that security is only about unauthorized access to a document or an email.

André Meyer is the managing director of Cloud Solutions, which is based in Hong Kong. Cloud Solutions helps businesses adopt cloud computing into different aspects of their organization. He has implemented document management, time and billing as well as virtual desktops for law firms.