A true-life, cautionary tale.
When a legal aid for an attorney asked to work remotely from her beach house, the lawyer jumped at the chance. Here was an opportunity to let a favored employee work flexibly and have some family time. She was thrilled because her family got to have more vacation and she did not fall behind at work.
Without putting much thought into it, she brought her office laptop with her and left it in her car.
When the laptop was stolen, the lawyer did not fully realize the depth of the problem at first.
Gone was a piece of equipment that he knew insurance would easily cover. His employee felt awful, but mistakes happen, he thought, and with time she would be okay.
The real harm grew from there like a tsunami.
When they debriefed, they realized that she had many documents on the computer.
She had spreadsheets easily accessed from the computer's hard drive. She had people's names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and credit card information.
She had work that was considered highly confidential and was subject to attorney-client privilege.
The attorney realized the true implications: he would have to report this event to the Attorney General’s office.
Identity theft--a real risk for his clients--was now his responsibility and cost him thousands of dollars in credit protection. Everyone who could have had exposure had to be notified of the potential breach. Negative public relations followed him.
Identity theft--a real risk for his clients--was now his responsibility and cost him thousands of dollars in credit protection. Everyone who could have had exposure had to be notified of the potential breach. Negative public relations followed him.
At LayerEight, we learned about this story because the attorney was one of our first clients.
He admitted that his technology needs were more than he could handle, and had been that way for a while. However, he hadn’t fully realized the risk it could pose to the people he served.
This scenario is not unique.
Under New York State law, every business owner has a responsibility to keep clients’ personally identifiable information confidential, including on their employees’ laptops whether at the office, at home, or in the backseat of a car.
At LayerEight, we can set up a unique technology plan for your business that makes your business run more efficiently while protecting you and your customers from potential risk. In this case, for a relatively small monthly fee, LayerEight was able to meet the attorney’s budget needs while still helping him send staff to work remotely--and securely--from the beach house.
To find out more, call us today at 518-324-5978 and let us show you how you can work remotely, safely.