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Client
Privilege
The legal field is the ultimate realm
of discretion and confidentiality. Email
is a quick and easy method of
communication for every lawyer, but by
its nature it is an open, public system
and certainly not discreet, confidential
or secure. Even an email traveling only
several miles often crosses the nation,
passing through 10 to 25 different
unsecured servers, all of which are
susceptible to hackers, compromise and
pirating.
The professional workplace has been
changing. Attorneys no longer have to be
sitting at their desks to do their work
-- they can be sipping a latte at the
local Starbucks while checking their
e-mail, conducting research for their
brief, and dialing into their voice
mail. They also use their home PCs to
connect to the firm's network.
Supporting computers at a law firm is no
longer a simple matter of protecting the
workstations in an office environment;
you must consider the dangers of remote
computing from almost every angle.
Things would be wonderful if PC security
was solely in the hands of one IT
professional who would always be aware
of the latest virus or spyware threat
and take the necessary precautions to
protect the machines under their care.
But alas, the biggest threat to PC
security is the end-user. As stated
above, attorneys don't have the time or
patience to learn about the latest
threats to computers and as a result,
blissfully click on a link in an e-mail,
or blindly say "yes" to a pop-up box
that asks to install software on their
machine.
Sure there are very bad people out in
the world who fiendishly enjoy hacking
into people's computers and digging out
personal information or credit card
numbers. But the fact of the matter is
that those people are only successful
because there are computer users who
won't take the time to protect
themselves. All it takes is a few simple
precautions to deter the majority of
malevolent attacks against a computer.
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