The 7 Major IT & Cybersecurity Risks Facing Law Firms
- Alvin Olson
- Aug 11
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Law firms are trusted with some of their clients’ most sensitive information. From confidential communications and intellectual property to financial records and case files, that data makes technology an essential part of everyday operations—and an attractive target for cybercriminals.
For law firms, these risks can also involve professional responsibilities, contractual requirements, client expectations, cyber-insurance conditions, and applicable privacy or breach-notification laws. The specific requirements will depend on the firm, its clients, and the information it maintains.
The challenge is that IT risk doesn’t always look like a major security breach. Sometimes it’s an aging server, an untested backup, an employee clicking the wrong email, or technology that hasn’t kept pace with the firm’s growth.
Here are seven areas law firms should be paying attention to:
Phishing and Email-Based Attacks
Email remains a major part of how attorneys and staff communicate with clients, vendors, courts, and other organizations. That also makes it an attractive entry point for attackers.
A convincing phishing email may appear to come from a colleague, client, vendor, or familiar service and attempt to persuade someone to click a malicious link, open an attachment, or provide login credentials.
Employee awareness should be supported by layered email security, multi-factor authentication, endpoint protection, domain-protection measures, and a clear process for reporting suspicious messages.
Question to ask: Are employees prepared to recognize a suspicious email before they interact with it?
Weak or Compromised Account Security
A password alone may not provide enough protection for important business accounts.
Multi-factor authentication should be enabled wherever supported, especially for email, Microsoft 365, remote access, administrative accounts, financial systems, and applications containing confidential information. Where available, firms should consider phishing-resistant methods such as security keys or passkeys.
Question to ask: Is multi-factor authentication enabled everywhere it reasonably can be?
Aging IT Infrastructure
Older technology doesn't automatically mean bad technology. But servers, firewalls, switches, workstations, and other equipment shouldn't be forgotten simply because they're still running.
A proactive technology strategy tracks equipment age, warranties, manufacturer support, capacity, performance, and future business requirements.
This allows a firm to make a planned decision instead of waiting for an unexpected failure to force one.
Question to ask: Do you know which pieces of your IT infrastructure are approaching replacement or end-of-support dates?
Backups That Haven't Been Tested
Having a backup is important.
Knowing that you can actually restore from it is even more important.
Organizations should understand what is being backed up, where those backups are stored, whether protected or isolated copies exist, how the backups are secured, and how quickly critical systems and information could be restored.
There is an important difference between a successful backup job, a successful file restore, and a tested recovery of an entire critical system. Regular recovery testing can help identify problems before an actual emergency occurs.
Question to ask: When was the last time your firm successfully tested restoring its critical data?
Ransomware and Business Disruption
The impact of a cyberattack isn't limited to stolen information.
Consider what would happen if attorneys and staff suddenly couldn't access email, documents, applications, or critical systems.
Even a relatively short disruption can affect productivity and client service.
That's why cybersecurity should be considered alongside business continuity and disaster recovery—not as a completely separate issue.
Firms should also maintain an incident-response plan that identifies who will make decisions, how the firm will communicate if normal systems are unavailable, when cyber-insurance or legal counsel should be contacted, and how evidence will be preserved.
Question to ask: How long could your firm continue operating if its primary systems became unavailable today?
Poorly Managed User Access
Employees need access to the information required to perform their jobs—but that doesn't mean everyone needs access to everything.
Access should follow the principle of least privilege, meaning each person receives only the access reasonably required for their role. Firms should also periodically review user, administrative, vendor, and remote-access accounts.
Access should also change when an employee changes roles or leaves the firm.
A repeatable onboarding and offboarding process can help ensure accounts, devices, permissions, and company information are managed consistently.
Question to ask: If someone left your firm today, would you know every system and account where their access needed to be removed?
Reactive Instead of Proactive IT Planning
One significant technology risk is waiting until something breaks before discussing IT.
Technology decisions should support where the organization is headed—not just solve today's problems.
A proactive IT roadmap can account for infrastructure lifecycle, cybersecurity, business growth, software needs, budgets, vendor relationships, and future projects.
It changes the conversation from:
“What broke?” → “What should we be planning for next?”
How Many of These Questions Can Your Firm Answer Confidently?
A strong IT strategy isn't about buying the most expensive technology or replacing equipment unnecessarily. It's about understanding your environment, identifying risks, and making informed decisions before those risks become business problems.
At DESA Network Services, we help law firms evaluate their technology, cybersecurity, backup and recovery capabilities, and long-term IT needs. Our goal is to identify practical priorities and develop a technology roadmap that supports security, reliability, productivity, and future growth.
Not sure how confidently your firm can answer these seven questions? Contact DESA to start a conversation about your current IT environment and priorities.
DESA Network Services | IMsupport
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