Why your Chambers Cybersecurity posture affects retention of business
The results of a GOV.UK survey released in March 2020 re-established that cyber security breaches are becoming ever more frequent. The UK Government found 46% of UK businesses and charities reported a cyber-attack during the year. Of those, 33% claimed they experienced a successful cyber-attack against their systems at least once a week in 2020 – up from 22% in 2017.
This of course also applies to Barristers’ Chambers – and when you are self-employed there are two things you need to evaluate on IT Security: value for money and ease of use.
Lawyers do not register with the Bar in order to learn how to operate complex IT Security solutions, and often lean on their Chambers to provide this expertise that they neither need nor want.
Hiscox, one of the UK’s largest insurers, have written eloquently on the subject.
As businesses of all sizes know, building a great reputation and earning customer trust takes years of hard work. Without the appropriate precautions in place, this can be destroyed in minutes if the business is targeted by a cyber-attack.
This sentiment has been made clear by legal services providers of all sizes, including city law firms: up your security or lose business, even if you run established Chambers.
A good deal of literature has been written by specialist media providers for the legal sector such as The Lawyer, with a major focus being on sustaining your good reputation and protecting client data.
This is easy enough to say, but how do you actually achieve this across a range of leading vendors, all of whom claim to be the best on the market?
How a Security Operations Centre help Chambers and Barristers
A Security Operations Centre (SOC) acts as an impartial provider of IT Security solutions. Instead of having to hire one-time security experts at significant individual costs to run audits, penetrations tests and implement improvements, a SOC provides continuous holistic security and is more cost-effective than one-off activities.
Barristers can also benefit from this service in the same way a larger Chambers can, simply on account of the fact that a Managed SOC acts on the amount of Endpoints which need protection. There are no flat-fees or initial implementation costs.
Being able to say that your business has a SOC is a sure-fire way to impress clients, because it shows you actively improve security and take it seriously. Many law firms still fail to do this, and would be impressed with the care you take with client data.
Winning Business: Having Better IT Security
It is unfortunately the case that despite how cost-effective a Managed SOC is, some of our Magic Circle and top-10 legal customers do not implement one. This is namely because they don’t consider the future of their IT Security through an exercise such as a roadmap and review the ROI of having a SOC.
Hayachi Services partnered with WatchTower after years of searching because they offered unparalleled value, payback within 3 months, and a ROI of 600%.
Proudly tell your clients that you have a Security Operations Centre, better security than they have – demonstrating that client data is even safer with you than with them.
Retain new business by actively improving that security, and by sustaining your good reputation for not being victim of cyber-attacks such as a databreach. Adopt secure payments through Open Banking and you benefit from prompt payment.
A Managed Security Operations Centre removes the complexity of managing a wide-array of competing vendors, focusses on capabilities rather than brands – and removes the stress of desperately searching for expertise to sustain the confidence your customers need in your Chambers’ IT systems.
