Get Your Head (And Law Practice) Up In The Clouds.

LegalFuel - Using The Cloud Securely. When I was a young lawyer, green in judgment, there came a thing called the World Wide Web, and it was good. Then, it became the Internet, and it was good. Then, it became a million separate computer servers, all over the world, and data got stored in another physical location, and it was possible to run software from a computer many thousands of miles away, and everybody freaked out. SAAS (Software as a Service) was the buzzword, and we all spent time wringing our hands and worrying about client confidences being stored somewhere up in the clouds where we had no control. Was it reasonable for a lawyer to store such sensitive information off site? At least, having the information on computer servers located in the office location seemed to keep it under "control". But, what is control? And, what is "reasonable". Lawyers have grappled with "reasonableness" for centuries. Negligence law assesses fault based upon whether an action or inaction was "reasonable'" under the circumstances. So, in a world in which cloud computing is necessary in order to keep up with modern technology, what is a "reasonable" lawyer to do? This article highlights the areas and problems you need to look at. My all time number one favorite is to make certain that anyone who tries to break into your data vault, especially when the data is stored on a server in the cloud, is to lock the door. Use two factor authentication for everything. If a site doesn't offer it, your data doesn't belong there. Be safe out there.