Who's afraid of cybercrime?
Chart by Stephen Ravenscraft
Security of legal documents is an issue heated to a boiling point by the internet and continual news reportage on data breaches. The 2016 Legal Technology Survey Report gives some perspective on how this issue is being handled by firms large and small.
The survey received about 800 responses to questions on technology basics and security, including:
- Has your firm had a full security assessment conducted by an independent third party?
- Has a client or potential client ever asked you to complete a security questionnaire?
- Has a client or potential client ever provided you with a document or guidelines on security requirements?
The results show that, in general, as firms get larger, security issues get more consideration and discussion. But looking at last year’s results for the first question, that interest was reported to be higher in 2015 than 2016.
The numbers:
| Solo firms | 10-49 lawyers | 500 or more lawyers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security assessed | 11.4% | 15.9% | 20.9% |
| Security audit | 0.5 | 8.0 | 25.6 |
| Security questionnaire | 2.8 | 27.0 | 32.6 |
| Security guidelines | 15.3 | 46.5 | 63.6 |
The six-volume 2016 Legal Technology Survey Report is available online at Shop ABA.
Source: 2016 Legal Technology Survey Report by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center.
This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “Who’s Afraid of Cybercrime? Clients ask the biggest firms about security the most.”
Find more links to data and other practice stats at abajournal.com/lawbythenumbers.
