Equifax Cyber Security Attack Highlights Secure Legal Software

A cyber attack on US credit rating firm Equifax may have affected millions of people including Canada citizens and highlights the need for secure legal software. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)  is investigating and has urged Equifax to contact affected Canadian customers as soon as possible. Equifax has not said how many of their users were affected  let alone how many  in the Canada.

 

Secure Legal Software & GDPR

How does any of this affect law firms? The fact is many law firms use Equifax for credit checking services  so may be affected by this. Smartsoft calls Equifax for the credit check and passes information to it. Clearly any solicitor needs to do credit checks and needs to pass data for this purpose,  Can you protect yourself against this type of loss:?

How to protect your data?

When Smartsoft Secure case management passes data to outside sources it encrypts it so it safely arrives at it’s destination and cannot be intercepted or if it is intercepted then it is already ‘locked’. This means if it is stolen then it is like stealing a locked safe you have no hope ever getting the key for.

Encryption is really important

So that’s why encryption is is really important. You can’t ever stop data being stolen but the best mitigation is to ensure it is all pre-locked. This is especially true when data is in transit.

 What about GDPR?

This is a big issue you as the law firm are the data controller, your client is the data subject and in this case Equifax is the data processor.  The data got stolen, are you at fault? You need to protect yourself and check your contracts not only with the processor but also with your clients (the data subjects). Unless properly covered this will lead to a huge array or problems in the future. Problems most law firms do not want and certainly do not need!