Banks Demand Better Cybersecurity From Their Lawyers

Given the breadth and depth of the data breach of 2014, it should come as no surprise that the nation’s big banks are feelings cautious bordering on paranoid about their security. And they would like it if their lawyers would feel the same way.

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, banks are now instructing the firms that work with them to take greater care to secure sensitive data because they don’t want said firms to be the backdoor that criminals use to breach their systems.

Attorneys at these firms, particularly those with access to financial data, are  now are more likely to get full background checks.  Law firms are also dealing with an inflated number of compliance checklists for technology systems and security procedures. The number of onsite audits to determine who really has access to documents has also increased.

Varun Mehta, a vice president at Clutch Group LLC, a legal and compliance consulting firm that works with global banks, said, “Every bank has changed from a year ago,”