Rarely a week goes by that some corporation or government agency announces the loss or compromise of personal information through a computer data base. No matter how careful a firm is with its employee and partner information, the risk of theft or hacking is present. But one of the highest risks is among the most easy to protect – the employee laptop. HR department managers, law firm administrators, practice group chairs and a variety of other members of law firm management routinely take home large amounts of highly sensitive firm information on the hard drives of laptop computers. For example, the Executive Director of a large mid-western firm recently left her laptop computer on a commuter train. The laptop, which contained budget worksheets showing three year client revenue histories, partner compensation and client profitability information, had no security or password protection and the information could be accessed by anyone turning the computer on.

 

A simple and basic answer is to require all staff employees to encrypt all firm files containing confidential information. To encrypt any Microsoft file simply follow these steps:

1.      Open the file.

2.      Click Tools and choose Options.

3.      From Options, choose the Security tab.

4.      Click on Advanced. From Encryption Type, choose any “strong” option – a key length of 128 bits.

5.      Click OK, which returns you to Security. Enter a password – a mix of symbols, numbers and letters, including lowercase and uppercase is best.

6.      Click OK. Now the data is encrypted each time you close the file. No one can decrypt it or open the file without using the password.