Law firms’ use of mobiles and tablets putting them at massive risk

Global News

12
Oct
2017

Editor

A study today reveals that for every 100 corporate mobile devices law firms’ employees use, they are exposed to a malware download once every two weeks; phishing attacks twice a day; and connecting to leaking sites and apps* 48 times a day.

Mobile security company Wandera analysed a sample of 10,000 corporate devices from law firms in the US and UK to understand how exposed the legal sector is to mobile attacks.

The data shows employees are connecting to insecure Wi-Fi hotspots once every two days, exposing law firms to threats like man-in-the-middle attacks.* 

On top of these threats, law firms also have issues with device configuration. The study found 29% of devices are running outdated software, 8% of devices don’t have lock screens and 1% of devices are jailbroken*. Taken together, these vulnerabilities make devices much easier to compromise - putting the data of law firms and their clients at risk. 

Prevalence of mobile threats

On average, for every 100 devices in a law firm:

• Malware is downloaded on a mobile device once every two weeks
• Phishing websites are clicked twice a day
• Leaking apps or sites* are accessed 48 times per day
• One insecure Wi-Fi hotspot connection is made every two days
• There are 14 attempts to access inappropriate content every day, which includes porn, gambling and searches for weapons or terrorism content

Prevalence of device vulnerabilities

In the average law firm:

• 29% of devices are running outdated OS versions
• 8% of devices don’t have lockscreens
• 6% of devices have a sideloaded app*
• 1% of devices are jailbroken or semi-jailbroken*

App usage and data consumption

The analysis reveals that, as a category, social media is the overall biggest consumer of mobile data on law firm devices, with Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat in the top ten most used apps in law firms*. This represents a significant cost issue considering data consumption is increasing by 83.8% each year among law firms with the average employee currently using 1.68GB of mobile data per month. 

Eldar Tuvey, CEO of Wandera, comments:“As we can see from our research, with the sensitive data that lawyers carry around on their mobile devices, law firms are a prime target for attack. It is no surprise that a growing number of law firms are now focusing their attention towards mobile security. However there are still an alarming number that have been slow to adapt their defences to the latest threats."

To read the full report and find out more about the mobile threats facing law firms, click here.