Because vendors often access clients’ internal systems, customer data, and intellectual property, they will always be a magnet for hackers searching for valuable data. Bad actors will always look for the weak spots in a firm’s defenses, including those deployed by a firm’s vendors and other third parties. And signs point to a growing number of cyberattacks, not a lessening of them.
When a global law firm pays millions to settle class action suits from clients whose personal information is compromised in a data breach, the price they pay often seems steep. But for a law firm, a multi-million-dollar payout is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the damage that can be done by cyber-attacks.
As stewards of some of the most sensitive information on the planet, firms also risk compliance problems, delays that impact legal proceedings, a steep drop in productivity, and severe trust and reputational damage if the firm is breached.
