61% of data breaches within companies of less than 500 employees involve paper records.*
Are you counting how much paper and how many employees are in your office right now?
Imagine your law firm in the news – not because you’ve just won a high profile case, but because you’ve experienced a data breach. Worse, that data breach was caused by something simple – like mistakenly throwing away older case files into the dumpster or one of your lawyers losing his briefcase in Starbucks, with client information written on his two legal pads inside that briefcase.
With the constant barrage in the news about hackers and concerns over digital insecurity, you might think that paper documents are more secure.
Not quite. Regardless of format, information needs to be secured. The best part is, with a good plan, you can secure both paper and digital documents. I’ll share a few tips later.
First, I want to share a few more statistics to reinforce the point:
Do you know who’s printing documents? And, once printed, are you certain any of those documents containing sensitive information are disposed of properly (shredded, filed, used for an active case, or archived)? Because an entirely paperless office is nearly impossible, here are a few tips to ensure security of your physical documents:
I’ve written about the benefits of moving away from paper-based workflows to digital document management before: The Duck Dive, The Case Against Paper Files, and Find and Use Office Documents: The Basics. But there are also security benefits too.
Document management allows audit trails of who accessed documents and keeps track of versions. Digital document management also simplifies the transition of documents into a records management environment, which can be even more secure.
Our document management partner Laserfiche identifies 9 tips to keep electronic documents secure. Here they are:
And never forget to revoke someone’s credentials when they are no longer an employee. Keep your documents and information secure. Improve your productivity. And make sure you get to court on time.
*http://www.databreachtoday.com/blogs/preventing-breaches-dont-forget-paper-p-1690
**https://fcw.com/articles/2013/08/08/va-data-breaches.aspx