This week Philips published a free eBook which was kindly distributed via the Lawyers Weekly email system with some information to help legal practices understand and potentially avert cybersecurity issues while at the same time streamlining their digital dictation and transcription workflow.
The Philips Dictation eBook touches on a couple of ways to help reduce both your legal practice and your personal attack surface, they are:
SaaS (Software as a Service)
SaaS is more than just a buzzword; in recent years organisations of all sizes have been drawn ever closer to SaaS. For that matter we also see SaaS in our personal lives, just look at how many music streaming and TV subscription services you have!
SaaS brings with it convenience, pay-as-you-go pricing, always up-to-date software and the benefit that someone else has to worry about infrastructure. In the case of Philips Speechlive, hosted in the Australian cloud, all the usual security tick-boxes (and data sovereignty) have been covered by Philips.
High Value Encryption
It sounds obvious but encryption, especially with confidential client data such as transcribed letters/notes and the digital audio of dictation or client meetings, arbitration, meetings, interviews etc must be encrypted. This encryption is not just limited to end-to-end encryption, what happens when you send data across the internet, but encrypting individual files before they are sent and when they are stored for a short period in the cloud, encryption at rest. All this using the latest security algorithms which would take decades to crack using the latest technology ensures that your firm and client data is safe.
And with areas to be careful of such as:
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
Whether you BYOD your own laptop in your favourite flavour, Windows or Mac (and even some Linux we are starting to see) or your preferred mobile device or tablet, allowing your workforce to use what they are happy and familiar with while accessing company data is also a trend that practices are embracing but at what risk? It is often difficult to manage these devices, unless you are big enough to use something like JAMF for your Macs and Company Portal for your Windows PCs. Storing confidential data on individual BYOD devices is a risk, keeping and working on these documents in the cloud is often a safer and easier option.
Our business is a good example, everything is in the cloud. If our office is wiped out tomorrow we could be up and running again straight away.
Human Susceptibility, think Phishing
Finally Philips raise human fallibility as a security risk, “.. to err is human ..” the eBook notes. Often unwittingly users can make mistakes due to sophisticated phishing techniques or malware that could compromise you and your client data.
There are some good whitehat companies around who will carry out phishing testing with your staff and for those that fall for the dodgy emails help them understand what to look for before clicking a malicious link or downloading a virus file.
All good points in the Philips eBook with the notion of highlighting to legal practices that although dictation and transcription may be a small if what essential part of the legal puzzle it doesn’t have to be a risk. Utilising a cloud dictation and transcription solution like Speech live from a powerhouse like Philips you know your data is safe. Your team can use any device they like and can work from any location, a win-win all round.
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