Digital White Papers

33 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER POTPOURRI They Are Going To Share Files With or Without You » Governance Issues. Governance is a major reason to pay aention to cloud-sharing tools right way. Any workarounds your lawyers create to the firm-authorized method of sharing files (or lack thereof ) likely do not support your information governance plan. Without the oversight provided by these plans, a simple mistake, such as accidentally sending the wrong document, could lead to litigation. » Security Breaches. In a worst-case scenario, a potentially devastating consequence of unauthorized file-sharing is a data breach. In the "2016 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis," IBM and the Ponemon Institute found data security breaches on average cost about four million dollars. As Rick Clark of TCDI points out, nearly all data breaches come from individuals not following their security or IG programs. Make It Right from the Start It's clear why you should keep your lawyers away from unauthorized external file-sharing sites, but the cloud is still a good, secure option for cuing the firm's overall expenses. A preferred method of secure cloud-based file-sharing is enterprise synchronization, which works for IT departments and lawyers and clients. Here are steps you can take to synchronize your files. » Evaluate and select one or more file-sharing options. The best are currently HighQ, Box, Firmex and SharePoint. Make sure you are well-versed in where these systems store their information, who holds ownership of the information and whether the tool will comply with your information governance policies. » Incorporate your current document management system (DMS) into the sharing process using a synchronization solution. Synchronization can be set up to publish a well-defined, authorized, auditable subset of a DMS repository to a different system (like one of the above) for external consumption, such as an external client site. Creating one of these external client sites allows lawyers to publish client maer with enabled administrative oversight, giving clients access only to what they need. Synchronization also helps archive those documents back to the central repository with no extra steps needed to pull it back from the cloud system into the firm's DMS. » Make sure your firm sets a clear policy about the use of third-party cloud systems. More important, make sure your employees are properly trained on the policy. Sharing Files With You There are so many problems that can arise if lawyers are not using IT-approved file-sharing systems. They will share files with or without you on board, so create an enterprise synchronization solution that will make your lawyers, clients and IT departments happy. ILTA DAN HUNSINGER Dan Hunsinger is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer at SeeUnity, overseeing product development, technical direction and strategy. Dan has a lovely wife, Anne, and two grown kids, Jack and Molly, who are each paving their own paths to success. Contact him at dan.hunsinger@seeunity.com.

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