Entrusted with their clients’ most sensitive business information, law firms must prevent the spread of breaches between matters and litigants, demonstrating that data in their custody and control is adequately protected and actively risk-mitigated.

Challenge

Law firm IT teams manage critical client evidence in rolling data collections, host large volumes of data in deal rooms and review tools, maintain large document management systems to centralize work product and expertise, and support critical attorney work in protecting client privilege in review and production, as well as administer hybrid cloud applications across the world to support these activities.

Managing security across heterogeneous systems with accountability to segment data for multiple clients and matters poses several challenges, including:

• Consistent policy to secure all data and systems. Policy must be applied consistently across on-premise, virtual, and public and private cloud systems in order to meet client standards, defend security postures during audits, and control lateral movement between matters and clients.
• Defensible risk mitigation and accountability. Potential vulnerabilities and enforcement measures must be quantifiable, auditable, and easily mapped to demonstrate enforcement across systems.
• Superior productivity and ease of use to support billable work. Moreover, this must be accomplished with an economy of resources and without disruption to the pressure of internal, client, and court deadlines.

Solution

Like attorneys, security professionals honor the principle of “least privilege” or allowing stakeholders access to information only for the most legitimate business purpose – also known as Zero Trust security. Cybersecurity best practices from the MITRE ATT&CK Framework assume that systems are actively compromised, and requires working proactively to stop the lateral movement of malicious actors. Attackers employ multiple techniques, often compromising a low value system via endpoints, public cloud, or authorized third parties to gain a beachhead before moving laterally to gain access to more high value assets.

To combat these threats, law firms must enable real-time visibility, understand their threat profile, and map out bad actors’ potential attack pathways, enhancing the organization’s ability to precisely scope compliance control regimes and execute a least privilege security posture.