Blog Post

Data Security When Using an Online Lawyer

Michael Brennan • Jan 12, 2018

Accessibility, convenience and ease of use- Online lawyers are a viable option for getting essential legal services.

Cloud Computing is on the rise as a way for companies- specifically, law firms to manage data. Like any new technology, cloud computing doesn’t come without risks, and a recent surge in data breaches at some of the country’s largest companies has understandably left many a bit wary about sharing personal or sensitive data electronically.

As a company that lives by the motto of “Redefining the Law Office”, at The Virtual Attorney, cloud computing is one of the foundations that enables the firm to provide convenience and accessibility to clients and everything related to their estate or business planning. Because of that, it’s important that our clients know that when they share sensitive information with us, it is going to stay with us. An assurance from me is one thing, but I feel it’s important for our clients to have some insight into exactly what precautions are taken and which safety measures are in place to make sure that assurance can and will be followed through upon.

At The Virtual Attorney, we use a platform called My Case to manage data and documents in the cloud. My Case is a third party provider of practice management tools for lawyers and law firms. As a third party provider, My Case takes a number of measures to ensure that your data stays confidential and secure. When you login to the client portal area of the firm’s website, you are accessing the My Case system.

Here are some of the highlights of the protections and security measures in place to make sure your sensitive information stays secure and stays between us.

Physical Security

My Case has built its data management platform on Amazon EC2 cloud servers. Yes, that Amazon. Working with such a goliath of a company means that The Virtual Attorney and My Case are able to keep your data stored and hosted on some of the country’s most advanced servers. According to Amazon, those servers are contained in highly secure data centers that utilize state of the art surveillance systems, 24x7 security staffing and regulated, highly privileged access standards as well as special protection against environmental events that could otherwise jeopardize stored data.

Your data is also physically backed up on two hard drives stored with The Virtual Attorney, so even in the highly unlikely event of a catastrophic failure of our cloud servers; you can rest easy knowing that your data is easily recoverable from our backups.

State of the Art Encryption

According to My Case, your data is encrypted in multiple ways. When you access the system through The Virtual Attorney and your unique secure client portal, all data you share is encrypted before it is transmitted anywhere using 128-bit SSL connections. Those are the same type used for online banking, investing, accessing healthcare information, etc.

Once data is received by My Case, it uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect your data before it is stored to disk. In other words, your data is encrypted in the same way authorized for storage of top secret military information. So, in the highly unlikely case that the physical servers were actually breached, your data is not going to be in a form capable of analysis.

Finally, as an added level of security, My Case assigns a unique identification key to every document uploaded to the system- whether by you or by us. When the document is removed or deleted from the system, the key is deleted as well. That means that, even in the event a redundant copy of the document remains on the server for a few days it can’t be recovered by anyone maliciously looking for it.

These are just a few of the highlights of the lengths we go to to ensure your confidential information remains safe and secure. If you have specific questions or concerns about data privacy and security when using The Virtual Attorney for your estate planning or business law needs, please don’t hesitate to ask. Ethically, attorneys are required to go to great lengths to keep client information confidential. While cloud computing has transformed the way that data is shared and stored, you can rest assured that you are being taken care of.

For more information on specific My Case or Amazon security features you can read My Case’s security whitepaper or Amazon’s Overview of Security Processes.

Michael F. Brennan is an attorney at the Virtual Attorney™ a virtual law office helping clients in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota with estate planning and small business legal needs. He can be reached at michael.brennan@mfblegal.com with questions or comments, or check out his website at www.thevirtualattorney.com .

The information contained herein is intended for informational purposes only and is not legal advice, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. For specific legal advice regarding a specific legal issue please contact me or another attorney for assistance.

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