Cybersecurity: Answering the Executive Team’s Key Questions
As an executive leader, you know that cybersecurity is critical for protecting your law firm’s data, reputation, and bottom line. However, you may have questions about whether your cybersecurity efforts are comprehensive and cost-effective enough.
Here are responses to some of the top questions I often receive from executive teams:
Is our organisation completely secure?
The reality is that no organisation can be 100% secure from cyber threats. New vulnerabilities and attack methods are constantly emerging. However, we take a risk-based approach to focus on protecting against the most significant threats to our key assets like client data and systems. Not every small risk needs to be mitigated.
Are our cybersecurity expenses justified, and why are they so high?
Our cybersecurity spending is carefully calculated based on cyber risk quantification models that weigh the potential costs of security breaches or downtime against what we invest in prevention. When you consider the average cost of a data breach for a law firm is millions of pounds, not to mention reputational damage, the expenses are justified and much lower than the risks.
Are we utilising our resources efficiently, and are investments paying off?
Absolutely. Our cybersecurity programme is tightly aligned with Ballards’ strategic goals of safeguarding client trust, ensuring business continuity, and complying with data regulations. We focus resources on the highest-impact risks and process improvements that boost both security and productivity.
How do our measures compare to standards and regulations?
Through our in-depth internal security assessments, we ensure our cybersecurity stance meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements as well as leading industry benchmarks for law firms. Our goal is to go above and beyond simple compliance.
What’s our plan if we face an incident?
We have a comprehensive incident response plan that covers detection, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learnt procedures. This allows us to quickly mobilise teams to minimise damage, maintain operations, and get systems back online securely.
At Ballards, we take a proactive and business-driven approach to manage cyber risks in a way that supports the firm’s success. I’m (Bal Siyan) always available to discuss our cybersecurity programme in more depth. Protecting our data and assets is an essential investment for the long-term.
By Bal Siyan, Fractional IT Director & CIO, Ballards LLP
For more information, please contact Bal Siyan on baljeet.siyan@ballardsllp.com or call 01905 794 504.
Disclaimer (as of 28/05/2024): This article has been prepared for information purposes only as of the stated date. The information provided may not be relevant or accurate for any other date. Formal professional advice is strongly recommended before making decisions on the topics discussed in this release. No responsibility for any loss to any person acting, or not acting, as a result of this release can be accepted by us, or any person affiliated with us.
