The Law Society has offered clear guidance – what should you do now? 

Following the recent, and continuing, cyber incident involving an IT partner for the legal sector, some law firms were unable to access their case management systems, with serious consequences for both the firms and their customers – particularly with conveyancing and legal aid. The Law Society were quick to respond, formally advising their members to urgently review their entire IT provision. 

In this blog, we look into what immediate actions are required and how LIMA can help businesses become and remain secure and resilient. With the ever-present and growing threat of cyber-attacks, these issues affect all sectors. 

From the Law Society: 

This incident should serve as a reminder to all firms to be aware of cyber risks.

This is one example of criminals exploiting firms’ growing reliance on ICT services provided by third-party vendors, targeting them as potential gateways to infiltrate firms’ networks, and steal money or sensitive information.

Firms should take this opportunity to review their cybersecurity arrangements to limit the likelihood of becoming the victim of such an attack and minimise the negative effects of any successful breaches.  

Responding to this guidance calls for certain immediate actions: 

Cyber Security  

Find and fix any weaknesses across your entire IT environment: your cyber security is only as strong as its weakest point across software, hardware and third parties.  

Cyber Insurance  

Ensure that you are fully compliant and covered for all eventualities: your cyber insurance will only be valid if your security fulfills all conditions, for instance achieving Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+). 

Business Continuity plans 

Check how well you are protected from the threat of cyber-attack or systems failure, and what happens if you’re subject to either of these events: downtime = lost money, and can lose you business or customer confidence. 

Disaster Recovery plan   

In the event of a disastrous cyber event, what happens? You should make sure you have an appropriate, rapid and up-to-date recovery plan in place – and that your IT providers have too. 

Why choose LIMA to help you do this? 

Significantly, the Law Society go on to say: 

It has become necessary for firms to carry out regular risk assessments of their supply chains, vetting third-party vendors for their security policies, procedures and historical security breaches. 

As this current incident shows, it’s essential to know that your IT partner, as one of those third-party vendors, can ensure the highest levels of security, as well as all the services and systems you’re looking for. 

LIMA have over 25 years of experience and expertise in cyber security. But more than that, we’re uniquely positioned not just to identify and flag up existing weaknesses and emerging threats and risks across your IT environment – covering 500+ technologies – but also to remediate them. All in a single end-to-end solution, working to outstanding guaranteed SLAs that easily meet and exceed CE+ requirements – and backed up with tailored, personal service that’s insight-led, proactive, end-user supportive and incisive.  

We find any problems, and we fix them too. You won’t find that with other IT providers.  

LIMA are widely experienced in the Legal Sector, supporting case management tools like ProClaims and LexisNexis – and we’re vendor agnostic, so we hand-pick services and products to suit the specific needs of each client. This tailored approach works across managed services, strategic consultancy and digital transformation and throughout our extensive portfolio, including a range of cloud platforms – public, private and hybrid. Our services are flexible and scalable too, enabling you to seamlessly meet growth demand and optimise your income potential. 

In short, LIMA provide everything you’re looking for in an IT partner, plus the highest levels of security and resilience to give you robust and reliable protection from the sort of problems being seen right now in the legal sector. 

“In LIMA, we found a solid partner who was able to act as an extension of our team and help us deliver our vision for the business. Together, we were able to move our systems to a more stable platform and put in place the necessary infrastructure that has enabled Brabners to achieve zero unplanned downtime over the last five years.” 
Nick Goodall CIO, Brabners LLP 

So, what comes next? 

Whether you’re affected by the cyber. incident we’ve cited or not – or, in fact, whatever sector you work in, the Law Society advice is good counsel. Now’s the time to review your IT provision – and LIMA can help you conduct a full review, to assess just how robust it is. Talk to us today: it could make a real difference to the future of your business. 

Contact one of our experts on 0345 345 1110 or enquiries@lima.co.uk