Futurelawyer

#TBT - Computer Security While Working At Home

Security Tips For Working From Home. I have been working part of the time from home ever since I discovered computers. From my first Atari game machine in the Eighties, which I connected to a dot matrix printer, and a 300 baud telephone modem, I wanted to find ways to generate law firm correspondence and documents at home and at the office. Flash forward, and many attorneys and others are finding ways to work in the home environment. Long ago, I turned the garage into an office/TV room, where I have an identical computer setup as I have at the office. Big screen monitor, scanner, printer, keyboard, mouse and various other peripherals at both locations. The only moving part is the notebook computer, which plugs in with one cable at both locations. Being solo helps, as I control the setup at both locations. But, you can do it too, even in these times. If you have a notebook computer, with Internet access, all you need is a scanner and printer and keyboard and mouse and you are ready to go. Most law firms, even small ones, have robust security at the office. But, what about your home? Are you using a VPN on top of your Internet access? Have you installed Malwarebytes, or comparable software, on your notebook computer? Are you using cloud data services for your client matters and data? This article from Malwarebytes gives some important tips that will help. Be careful out there.

Take Up The Slack - Tighten Your Lawyer To Lawyer And Lawyer To Client Communications

Slack Law Firm Communications. Suddenly, secure online communications is all the rage. In a time of pandemic, law firms are scrambling to create methods of communicating securely with other lawyers, lawyers in their own firms, and clients. The first question about Slack, other than is it easy to use, is whether it is secure. Lawyers have a duty to guard the confidentiality of client information, so it is important at the outset. I am happy to report that it is as secure, or more secure, than traditional methods of communication. It calls to mind the early Nineties questions I got about email. Is it secure? You are sending data to remote servers. I used to answer that email is a lot more secure than sending confidential data on a piece of paper in a flimsy envelope through the mail. The test is "reasonable" security. Slack meets that test, and more. In fact, when two factor authentication is set up on a Slack account, it is pretty impregnable, at least as secure as you can get on the Internet. It is easy to set up private groups, and I am enjoying the Law Firm AutoPilot group hosted by my friend, Ernie Svenson, in New Orleans. Combined with video conferencing by Zoom, we are entering a new age of human interaction that doesn't rely on face to face human contact. It would be nice if we lived in a world where human to human contact was safe. But, at least for now, it isn't, and Slack and Zoom are my methods of choice. So, fellow lawyers, get with the program. If you need help, contact me or Ernie Svenson, and we will be happy to assist.

Phishing Emailers In A Pandemic - There Is A Special Level Of Hell

When everyone is home, trying to keep working and using the Internet, the bad guys and the scammers are plotting ways to take your money. There is a special level of Hell for people who take advantage of a global pandemic by increasing their nefarious schemes. That aside, keep an eye on your email, and don't fall for it. Never give out your personal information, especially banking information, in response to an unsolicited email. Thankfully, these scammers are not the brightest bulbs in the room, so the signs are pretty clear. This one I got this morning, and the first clue was that I got 10 of them. It uses a reasonable amount, Five Thousand Dollars, but the amounts in the email differ. In one place it says Three Thousands. The mistake in grammar: Thousands instead of Thousand is also a clue. So, after this is over, let's redouble our efforts to catch these people and put them in jail for a long time. In the meantime, be careful out there.

FBI Warns Of Email Scams During CoronaVirus Scare

Office 365 And GSuite Scams. Criminals and scammers never take a holiday. They also are not shy about using technology to steal, even during a global pandemic. Punishing scammers will have to wait for another day. But, it would be better to protect yourself and your law firm from the crime in the first place. If you or your firm use hosted email, such as Google or Office 365, you absolutely, positively, have to set up two factor authentication, at a minimum. This article from Senseint, in its Ride The Lightning blog, identifies some of the things you should be doing, and should have been doing, all along. Now that much of the world is moving to the cloud, there will be a spike in attacks on hosted data sites. Protect yourself.

Why You Need To Know About Tensor Flow Analysis - Or Not.

GMail Security Features. If you read FutureLawyer regularly, you know that one of my mantras is that you should never open attachments from emails coming from unknown persons. One of the favorite ways that the bad guys get stuff into your system is to load bad code into innocent looking attachments that pretend to be images or other similar items. You also know that I am a fan of GMail, even though the cool kids on the block consider vanity email addresses to be better. My reasoning is pretty simple. Google's engineers are a lot better at protecting me than a vanity address from an ISP that I know little about. This new under the hood improvement to hacking detection is Exhibit A. In engineer speak, Google is using a TensorFlow deep-learning model trained with TFX (TensorFlow Extended) and a custom document analyzer for each file type to get 150% better malware detection in email attachments. So, Google will stop these bad guys before they get to your door. Match GMail with my favorite anti-malware software, Malwarebytes, and you can rest easier. You're welcome.

American Express Did Not Send This Email

GMail is pretty good at flagging spam and phishing emails, and sends them to the Spam folder automatically. However, occasionally one will slip through, so pay attention grasshopper. This one was caught in my spam folder; but, I like to briefly scan the folder for false positives. In any event, this one has all the hallmarks of a phishing scam. First, it leads with "you have a deposit to your account". American Express, or any card company for that matter, very rarely gives me money, and usually only after I have made some sort of complaint and gone through some bureaucratic hoops. So, free money doesn't just appear in your account. Sorry, but reality bites. Second, the diction in this email, while okay to some eyes, doesn't ring true to the American speaking voice. Example: "we require you update your American Express account as a means to accept your new merchant payment." I am not a "merchant". I am a customer. "as a means to accept" is grammatically awkward diction. "we require you update", instead of "to update". And, when updating an account is required for some reason, never click on the link in the email. Go to the site from your browser. Third, using a Capital letter in the middle of a sentence would never get by an AmEx editor: "For security reasons, The payment has been placed on hold". Fourth, identifying the account as ending in: XXXX. Please. How did you credit my account if you don't know the last four digits? I haven't even discussed the To and From problems in the email. Finally, if AmEx is going to give me a credit, they will just credit the account, and explain the credit on the account page. There are other clues; but, hopefully you get the picture. Read those emails carefully. Never click on a link in an email; especially one that tells you are going to get money, or promises an inheritance from an uncle in Africa. Be careful out there. Jeez.

Why Every Lawyer (And The Rest Of You) Should Be Using Signal As Your Only Messaging Client

Signal Secure Messaging. Why isn't everyone using Signal text messaging? It is a no brainer for lawyers, who communicate about confidential, sensitive client matters every day. It is encrypted, end to end, and only the sender and recipient can read texts sent in it. Why aren't every actor, politician, political party, lawyer, and anyone else who cares about security using this free tool for sending encrypted texts? Explain it to me, please. Pretend I am a two year old, and tell me what are people thinking, who say embarrassing things in texts, and tweets, and other Internet utterances that inevitably get hacked. People get cancelled in our cancel culture. People lose jobs, spouses, and more. People, what are you thinking? Of course, the answer is that you aren't thinking about consequences. So, protect yourself from drunk texting. You can set your texts to disappear in a few seconds or a few minutes, and even your recipient can't save them. Free speech means freedom from having our thoughts hacked and being punished for them. I know it is popular for thoughts to become crimes these days; so, protect yourself. Jeez.

#ComputerSecurity - Back Up That Computer...Your Life Is On There!

My PNY Pro Elite 1 Terabyte SSD was delivered today, and I am imaging my hard drive as we speak. This thing is really TINY. My data and programs only take up around 210 Gigabytes, so I have room for several backups. It is a set it and forget it process, except that I have to stay until it finishes. Since it connects to USB-C the data transfer is really fast. Once done, I have a complete image of everything in the unlikely event the computer drive crashes or is lost or stolen. If you aren't backing up your programs and data regularly, you are risking your practice and your life. Keep the drive in a separate location, and just do it.

PNY Tiniest SSD Drive On The Planet - $149 For 1 Terabyte

Tiniest SSD Drive Happy Valentine's Day to me. Diane got me engraved Scotch decanter and glasses with our wedding date inscribed on them. But, being a practical man,  I bought myself a 1 Terabyte SSD which isn't much larger than a credit card. You are all aware that I am a big believer in backup, backup, backup. I image my drive at least weekly, since my whole personal and professional life resides on my Microsoft Book 2 ultralight computer. Of course, where possible, I am using the cloud for many applications these days, and I trust Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and other cloud storage as well. But, there is no substitute for a fast back up handheld drive, and they are getting tinier and tinier. The best I have found to date is this PNY USB C SSD, which I can carry everywhere. It is much faster than my USB 3.0 drives, which are small; but, not this small. For $149, for a 1 Terabyte drive, this is an amazing piece of tech. The entire contents of your typical computer is likely under 500 Megabytes (I get everything on a 256 GB SSD built in to the system. I can image my system 2 or 3 times on this little guy, and still have room for my essential files in straight backup mode. So, be kind to yourself on this Valentine's Day, and show yourself some love. Backup your computer. You may be glad you did.

Facial Recognition Tech - Should It Be Banned?

Facial Recognition Ban Proposed. Is facial recognition tech so dangerous to privacy rights that police should be banned from using it? A bill has been filed in the Senate proposing just that. As tech advances, the push and pull between legitimate societal needs for law enforcement, and individual rights to privacy, continue to be tested. It is highly unlikely that any advanced tech will be forever banned, however. The regulation of such technology will be the field we play on in the future. This bill doesn't have much of a future; but, it is certainly a starting point for a societal discussion of how to regulate the tech in the future. What do you think?