Building a culture of cybersecurity for your firm

Designing and building cybersecurity workplace culture

When it comes to security, most organizations focus on the technical aspects of keeping their data and systems safe. But there’s another important element to consider: workplace culture.

A positive workplace culture around security can help law firm employees feel empowered to do their part in keeping the company safe. It can also make it easier to identify and fix security problems before they cause serious damage.

Unfortunately, building a strong security culture isn’t always easy. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Make security everyone’s responsibility.

One of the most important things you can do to foster a security-conscious culture is to make security everyone’s responsibility. From the partners to the entry-level staff, every employee should understand their role in keeping the company safe.

2. Communicate openly about security.

Many law firm employees avoid talking about security because they fear they’ll say something wrong. But the more you can open up the lines of communication, the easier it will be to identify and fix security problems.

3. Lead by example.

Ask questions about security and report any suspicious activity to the appropriate staff members. Don't be shy about it. When you reach out to an employee to check whether the email you received from them was legitimate, you are telling them it's okay to ask even if the suspicions are unfounded. You can also provide regular, firm-wide updates on your company’s security efforts and any new information about attacks, policies, and workplace culture.

4. Check leadership attitudes toward cybersecurity.

Leadership needs to ensure that they have a good understanding of the risks the firm faces. This means being up to date with the latest cyber threats and understanding how these could impact the firm. They also need to make sure that cybersecurity is high on the agenda, and it is given the attention it deserves at the partner level and adequate resources are allocated to it.

The role of leadership in cybersecurity efforts is to take seriously the ever-growing threat of cybercrime against law firms. You can do this by developing and implementing cybersecurity policies and procedures, and by taking those procedures seriously. You must be able to effectively communicate with stakeholders about cybersecurity risks and mitigation plans if you want to keep your client data out of malicious actors' hands. Don't wait for bad news to take action.