Secure Way for Lawyers to Communicate

Did you know that the first email was sent over a network was in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson?  From that time on, email has become one of the regular ways that people communicate, including lawyers.

However, are you aware that there is a growing notion that the regular email is slowly becoming outdated because it is unsecure?  With about 53% of lawyers using email to communicate with their clients at least once a day, is there a more secure option for them to use?

Naturally Unsecure

Why is regular email unsecure?  Before your email reaches the intended recipient, it jumps from one server to another until it reaches the final destination.  This means that because it is unencrypted it remains vulnerable to anyone who may want to access and read the contents.  For lawyers this can mean a breach of ethical rules that require protection of client information.

The scary part is that despite being naturally unsecure, many lawyers are still relying on regular email to communicate or send privileged information to their clients.  In fact, in a 2014 survey conducted by the American Bar Association, about 68% of lawyers share their memos and briefs using regular email, while 63% send case status updates.  As many as 60% of lawyers rely on email to share court proceedings and about 16% share process filings.

Can you imagine the amount of information that is vulnerable and obviously ripe for the picking by unscrupulous online thieves?  The risk further increases as some lawyers use email more than once a day with as much as 16% of them sharing information up to 4 times a week.  So all of these exposed information from lawyers are just sitting out there.

If you think this is alarming, you should know that according to the survey report, even though lawyers are aware of the vulnerability of the emails they send only a few take the necessary steps to secure them.  Did you know that 73% of lawyers merely relied on the use of the confidentiality statement in the email as a means of preserving security?

The other steps that were taken was to include a confidentiality statement in the subject line and require clients to provide either a written or oral consent.  How secure do you think all these measures are?

Web-Based Portals

With this information on hand, what is a secure alternative for lawyers to communicate among themselves or with their clients?  The easiest by far is to use web-based portals, which are more secure compared to the popular choice of unencrypted email.

As a client or even a law firm, the good news for you is that a huge number of lawyers are now turning to the use of encrypted email.  Many are choosing to migrate to web-based client portals to create a more secure communication line with their clients.

This is actually more appealing for many lawyers especially if their law firm makes use of cloud computing.  Web-based portals are implemented as a component of cloud computing platforms and make use of encryption methods to deliver a more secure communication line with clients.

Web-based portals make it possible to deliver confidential information to clients because only those with the right password will be able to decrypt the communication and access it.  This is the reason why lawyers are becoming more confident in using secure online portals not only in communicating with clients, but also when collaborating.  In fact, from the 9% of lawyers who used online collaboration in 2011, the figure has risen to 33% in 2014.

The choice of client portal would definitely vary depending on whether the lawyer is on solo practice or works for a firm.  However, if you want to make sure that all your communications remain secure, then you need the help of cloud computing specialists.

NexStep is not just a cloud computing specialist, more importantly; they specialize in management-free technology for lawyers. Contact NexStep today to get the secure way for you to communicate with your clients and ensure them that your conversations are protected.