The Legal Ethics Behind Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is hot these days. Law firms are looking toward the cloud for guaranteed availability and increased productivity, but are they considering all of the ethical issue when dealing with the cloud?

From an IT perspective, ethics goes hand and in hand with security. If a firm is not doing their very best to secure their data from inside & outside then that firm may be negligent. While the cloud is popular, law firms really have to do their homework before choosing the right cloud host.

While there is no such thing as a fully secure network, ask about the kinds of security offered or where your client data would be stored. Make sure the host or the data center hosting your data is certified in some way. Ask about backups, how often backups are created what the retention policy is on file and server level backups.

Ask about if and how the cloud host segregates their clients from each other, and always ask for client references. Ask about remote access to your files. What security means are in place to lower the likelihood of a data breach or connection interception. Look for at least 256-bit VPN encryption when connecting to your cloud and ask if the host supports stringent password policies.

It is these questions and the right answers that will give your firm the right to say that you did the due diligence involved in finding the right cloud host for your firm, following ethical guidelines and above all protecting your client data.