As originally published in Law.com and Cybersecurity Law & Strategy Newsletter April 2021. Copyright ALM Media Properties, LLC.
Accountability and ROI: Building Cybersecurity into Your Budget
by Heinan Landa | Optimal Networks, Inc.
Last year we watched cybercriminals seize a massive business opportunity.
Our rapid shift to working from home plus heightened financial, political, social, and emotional stressors presented a perfect storm: we were all working from inherently unsecure home environments, and heightened anxieties made us even more susceptible to social engineering scams.
Law firms that had invested so much time and money into securing their office networks became very vulnerable very suddenly, and bad actors did not hesitate to cash in—the FBI’s Internet Cybercrime Complaint Center (IC3) saw a 400% increase in reported cyberattacks in 2020.
While the events of last year presented a unique scenario for all of us, the swift and aggressive response from bad actors is indicative of a trend that will, unfortunately, persist: cybercriminals have organized themselves into a successful enterprise that continues to innovate and evolve for maximum profit.
And that profit is sizeable: According to a March 2020 study by Atlas VPN, cybercriminals bring in over $1.5 trillion per year in revenue—more than Facebook, Walmart, Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft combined.
Our concept of cybersecurity needs a reboot
The only way to mitigate the risk of a breach is to match ever-evolving threats with ever-evolving security strategy. This means law firms have to disabuse themselves of some old “truths” that are now outdated and, quite frankly, dangerous: