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Most Firms Are More Concerned About Security Threats Than They Were Just Two Years Ago: eDiscovery Trends

If you’ve been paying attention to the headlines at all this year, it should come as no surprise that most firms are more concerned about security threats than they were just two years ago.  But, what percentage of firms and what is their biggest security concern?

The LegalTech News article, By the Numbers: Cybersecurity in the 2015 Am Law-LTN Tech Survey, provides some interesting key stats on firms’ handling of cybersecurity and their top concerns.  Here are some key numbers:

  • 77% of firms are more concerned about security threats than they were just two years ago: In addition, the majority of respondents to the survey indicated that their security concerns have increased over the past year, with none indicating a decrease in concern over the past year;
  • 25% of respondents identified phishing as their perceived biggest security threat to the firm: In addition to the practice where hackers pose as legitimate sites to trick people into providing their credentials, 23% of respondents identified “outsiders trying to break into the data network as their biggest threat, for a total of 48% of respondents where their biggest concern was unauthorized outsider access. 27% of respondents identified a lack of knowledge about their security status as the biggest threat, either a lack of knowledge if data has been compromised (16%) or a lack of knowledge when the firm is under attack (11%).
  • 83% of responding firms have implemented mobile device management software to protect data on BYOD devices: That’s probably a big reason why only 5% of respondents identified “mobile” as their biggest security threat.
  • 31% of firms plan to migrate to Windows 10 in the next year: As the survey indicates, support for older operating systems can dwindle, resulting in a greater possibility of security exploits in those older operating systems (though it’s my experience that the newer systems can sometimes be as vulnerable).

So, what do you think? What do you consider to be the biggest security threat to your firm? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

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