Last month, I outlined what is a relatively simple and incredibly important goal of the State Bar – to improve member services.

We want to better understand the challenges and difficulties you encounter as a lawyer so we can provide solutions to help you address them.

In this issue, we highlight what is a growing problem and a real threat to your practice – cyberattacks and cyber scams. (See “Cyber Insurance: Necessary, Expensive, and Confusing as Hell.”) Cybersecurity and cyber insurance may not be on your radar. But it is on ours.

Think a security breach won’t happen? Unfortunately, the number of hacks and scams is on the rise – and lawyers are not immune. In fact, half of all small businesses – including law firms – have experienced an attack in the last year. The consequences of a data breach or a ransomware attack on your practice can be overwhelming and costly.

The cyber insurance company Identity Fraud Inc. reports the following examples of insurance claims:

• A lost laptop containing sensitive personal information of clients results in a data breach requiring investigation, notification, and credit monitoring expenses;

• A hacker shuts down computer systems for an extended period of time resulting in loss of income and extra expenses;

• A disgruntled employee spreads a virus into a computer system and destroys data, which results in expenses to investigate and recreate data;

• A hacker sabotages a network with malware and demands a hefty extortion fee to unlock the owner’s data;

• A payoff is demanded to prevent sensitive client information from being publicly released; and

• Client/customer data is breached and a class action is filed.

The State Bar’s Insurance and Member Benefits Committee has been exploring the complicated world of cyber insurance, to help advise you on best practices to reduce your liability. We’ve learned that professional liability insurance typically doesn’t begin to cover the potentially enormous costs if your client’s information is breached or your sensitive data is held hostage by a hacker.

After investigating the many products available, the State Bar chose M3 Insurance as its partner in offering coverage that can be specifically tailored to meet your cybersecurity needs. The BIZLock program provided by Identity Fraud is now available to all members. It includes third-party liability insurance coverage and defense, coverage for regulatory fines and penalties, cyber extortion, data reconstruction, media and website liability, the costs for forensic investigations, and identity monitoring for breaches.

It’s hard to stay on top of everything you need to know to manage the business side of your practice, especially in the face of increasingly more sophisticated threats. I hope you’ll review the important cybersecurity information in this issue and make a plan to protect you and your firm, if you don’t have one already.

And when I talk about my mission this year to further our commitment to you, this is one example. Stay tuned for more.