SIDEBAR Winter 2017-18 - 11

MONTGOMERYBAR.ORG

Cyber Breach Prevention
Ethical Duty for Law Firms

H

ackers are executing sophisticated data breaches on large
and small companies all over the world, making the
need to protect your law firm from the dangers of cyber
breach more important than ever.
Although many lawyers prefer to believe that their firm is
unlikely to be the target of a hack, such thinking often proves to be
naïve. Cyber criminals are continually adapting, looking for easy
targets and sources of potentially valuable data. Because law firms
are essentially warehouses of client and employee data, they should
acknowledge that they are not immune to such attacks.

Personally Identifiable Information

a laptop, thumb drive, smart phone, tablet, or some other mobile
device. If the information on the lost or stolen device was not
encrypted and contained PII, a breach likely occurred. With access
to office email and other law office networks, cyber criminals can
gain access to and steal confidential information.
This is an ethical dilemma for attorneys for several reasons.
Besides the common law duty owed by attorneys to protect the
confidential information entrusted to them by clients, the ABA
Rules of Professional Conduct require an attorney to maintain
the confidentiality of information related to the representation of
current and former clients, and state and federal law also imposes a
duty upon attorneys to protect PII for clients.
To learn more about data breach and cyber liability coverage,
contact Jeremy Del Priore at USI Affinity today.

Appeals
and Briefs

Law firms are often considered perfect targets by cyber
criminals looking to hack into businesses that keep lots of data
containing personally identifiable information (PII) but lack
protective security. Some examples of PII include:
* Names, identifying numbers, symbols, or other identifiers
assigned to particular individuals

Anthony J. Vetrano

* Information that describes anything about a person
* Information that indicates actions done by or to a person
* Information that indicates a person possesses certain
characteristics
Most, if not all, law firms possess a great deal of PII. This
information was historically kept in paper files, but was not stored
electronically for the most part. The most commonly reported
cyber breach reported by law firms is related to the loss or theft of

610.265.4441
630 Freedom Business Center Drive, Suite 215
King of Prussia, PA 19406
TonyVetrano@VetranoLaw.com
www.PennsylvaniaAppealsLawyer.com

WINTER 2017-18 11
https://montgomerybar.org/ http://www.PennsylvaniaAppealsLawyer.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SIDEBAR Winter 2017-18
