Law Technology News sends warm wishes to you and yours for a wonderful, safe, inspiring new year! Of course we could not resist the obvious—a chance to hear from our readers about their predictions for the shiny fresh year ahead. For the next few days we’ll bring you the soothsaying of our legal technology community. This is the third in the series, see #1 here and #2 here LINK. Items may be slightly edited for length and clarity.
>> Collision Course. 2014 will be the year when security and lawyer technology competence collide. Recent massive password breaches on sites like Adobe, and the growth of ransomware, will mean we’ll see more law firms exploited and in the news. The glare of attention on encryption in response to government listening will mean that lawyers will end up using more secure connections and services whether they intend to or not. At the same time, the burgeoning Internet of Things will make law firms, mobile devices, and home offices the ever-more vulnerable last mile of technology. It may not be the law firm’s coffee pot, but a multi-function printer or the networked DVD player in the conference room running old software will provide access to some law firm’s networked data. Ironically, the generally heightened level of encryption and two-step authentication, as well as the maturity of the sector, will mean cloud computing has never been a better option for law firms. — David Whelan, manager, legal information at The Law Society of Upper Canada Great Library, Toronto.
