Potential clients are confident in law firms’ cybersecurity. Should they be?

Zach Olsen is quoted in Rhys Dipshan’s Legaltech News article on how the perception of law firm cybersecurity can be at odds with the reality of cyberthreats facing the legal industry.

Despite an increasingly malicious cyberthreat environment, most potential law firm clients are confident in the legal industry’s ability to protect client data, according to a survey of more than 1,000 small business owners and the U.S. general public conducted by data disposal company Shred-IT and market research company Ipsos Public Affairs.

Almost half of the respondents, 47 percent, said data protection considerations were “very important” when deciding which law firm to hire, while 36 percent said such considerations were at least “somewhat important.”

But a majority, 61 percent, expressed little or no concern about providing sensitive information to lawyers, underscoring the widespread trust potential clients have in law firms ability to protect their data.

Adam Levin, chairman and founder of identity and data protection company CyberScout, noted that perception may not accurately reflect the reality of cyberthreats in the legal industry. “When consumers hear about breaches, normally they don’t really hear about law firms,” he said.

Zach Olsen, president of Infinite Global, a strategic communications consultancy, added that because of this “law firms continue to enjoy a level of trust among consumers that some industries have already lost.”

Read the whole article here.