Cybersecurity Tips for When You're out of the Office

We all work on the go these days, checking emails on the bus, typing up memos in a coffee shop, or drafting documents on a red-eye flight. But the freedom to work from anywhere also comes with some drawbacks.

When you're out of the office or on the go, you don't have your regular cybersecurity systems there to protect you, meaning you could be putting your own and your clients' information at risk. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself, taken from the FindLaw archives.

1. Court: File Sharing Waives Privilege

Working on the go means constant digital file sharing -- you upload documents for a colleague, download theirs, etc. But if you fail to secure your files, you may waive the attorney-client privilege. That's just what happened here, when a company uploaded a case file onto the cloud storage service Box, but failed to password protect the documents.

2. Coffee Shop Lawyers, Public Wi-Fi Is Not Your Friend

You want to take a break from the office for a few hours, so you head over to the local coffee shop, jump on their wi-fi, and it's like you're working at the firm, but with more interesting people around and better drinks. Except that coffee shop wi-fi could be unsecured and using it for confidential matters could be an ethics violation.

3. Airport Internet: What Lawyers Need to Know

Coffee internet, airport internet, Greyhound bus internet -- all of it is risky. Before you start logging in to strange wi-fi networks, make sure you take these security steps, including setting up a virtual private network.

4. How to Guard Against iPhone Ransom

Our phones are just as important as our computers these days. After all, they've got our emails, our contacts, even some of our word processing software. Now hackers are increasingly targeting smartphones, holding them for ransom unless you pay up. Here's how you can prevent it.

5. When the Internet Goes Down, Will Your Practice Survive?

You're working at home when a construction crew accidentally shuts off internet for the block. You're finishing a document during a flight, only to have the wireless cutout after takeoff. Your cloud-based storage provider succumbs to a cyberattack, going offline. Would you have a plan in place?

Related Resources:

• 11 Ways to Start a Virtual Law Office Today (FindLaw's Technologist)
• Is Full-Time Telecommuting a Good or Bad Thing? (FindLaw's Technologist)
• How Mobile Phones Have Changed the Legal Profession (FindLaw's Technologist)