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PERSPECTIVES MARCH 23, 2020 ¦ 47

(3) Properly prepare attorneys and staff for • Warn against using personal devices that are
work-from-home. not secure
• Make sure they know how to access their work • Beware of attorneys and staff who send copies
voicemail (and know their passcode) of emails and documents through their person-
• Verify that they have access to a laptop, iPad or al email accounts
other devices so that they can work effectively • Set a policy forbidding saving of client con-
from out of the office fidential emails and documents directly on
• Encourage them to check that their devices personal devices (they should be stored only on
have all recommended system updates and the firm’s system, using the remotely-accessed
patches installed digital workspace/VPN)
• Advise them that devices should require strong • If client confidential data is saved to the devices’
passwords and, if possible, hard drives, it should be deleted
segregated with separate pass- as soon as practicable
words for separate access for • Instruct attorneys and staff
family members Consider re- not to store or transfer confi-
quiring all attorneys and staff Lawyers cannot let their dential data using unapproved
to change their passwords fre- personal cloud service accounts
quently during the course of guard down when they are (5) IT security should go on
the remote-working period using the shared family
• Verify they all have the digital high alert.
workspace properly installed laptop while working from • Watching closely for anom-
home in sweats.

on their out of- office devices alies in activity on your system
• Educate attorneys and staff on and evidence of hacking during
the dangers of linking to the this time of vulnerability
firm’s systems using insecure • Keep better logs of network
publicly-available Wi-Fi, or using a home Wi-Fi activities to enable better information about
connection that lacks strong password protection threats
• Keeping a particular eye on remote access
(4) Prepare for the cybersecurity risks of remote • Considering “stress-testing” your security pro-
working. tocols, perhaps randomly, to determine where
• Understand that all of the firm’s efforts to pre- vulnerabilities lie and plug them before bad
vent malware from entering the IT system have guys can get into your firm’s network
not been applied to attorney and staff personal Mark A. Berman is a commercial litigation
devices
partner at Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer. He
• Personal devices may already be infected with is a past chair of the Commercial & Federal
malware, particularly if used by children or Litigation Section of the New York State Bar As-
other family members who click unsafe links sociation (NYSBA) and the current co-chair of
sent by hackers
NYSBA’s Committee on Technology and the Legal
• Personal devices likely do not have the perim- Profession.
eter controls and virus detectors installed on ¦

firm systems, and often lack required patches to Angela Turturro is the Sections editor for the
security flaws in their operating system and ap- New York Law Journal and head of the Contrib-
plications uted Content desk for ALM.

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