The International Legal Technology Association's (ILTA) 2019 Technology Survey was released last week and contained more statistics than a high school math textbook, courtesy of the 537 firms—two-thirds of which had 150 attorneys or fewer—who responded. 

But since time is as short as the workday is long, Legaltech News has already sifted through much of the data surrounding wireless email devices, network drives and enterprise search initiatives to arrive at what we think are among the five most interesting reveals on display.

|

1. IT Departments Need to Be on Their Toes

Last year's survey results showed that a clear majority of respondents (41%) were not using any kind of metrics to gauge the performance of their IT department—but that appears to be changing. In 2019, the "none" category dropped to 36%, placing it in a three-way tie with "user satisfaction surveys" and "Help Desk closed ticket feedback," both of which experienced incremental gains in use since 2018. Second runner-up "Help Desk ticket resolution times" experienced the largest growth, swelling from last year's 26% of respondents to 35% in 2019.  "Metrics are the drivers of everything; we think firms are searching for ways to make meaningful and usable changes," said Beth Anne Stuebe, ILTA's director of publications and press.

|

2. Lawyers Still Really Don't Like Change

Even with all of the privacy laws scattered across the landscape, "user's acceptance of change" continues to trump "security compliance/risk management" among respondents when it comes to the top three technology issues or annoyances within their firms. The "acceptance of change" category experienced a slight bump, transitioning from 35% of the vote in 2018 to 37% in 2019—which puts it close to 2016′s all-time high of 38%. Meanwhile, "security compliance/risk management" experienced a slight drop over the last year from 30% down to 28%, tying with "keeping up with new versions of software" for the number two spot.

|

3. Third Party Checkups Are an Annual Affair

Since 2016, most survey respondents have preferred that their firms have third-party security assessments performed annually, and 2019 was no exception, increasing from 43% of the vote to 48%. Conducting these audits "as needed" took second position, holding relatively steady at 14%. The number of respondents who "never" have third-party assessments performed also didn't budge from the last year's 12%, which itself was a decrease from 16% in 2017. Stuebe said that ILTA's survey volunteer team expects to see more firms utilize third-party security assessments moving forward. "[Attorneys] see that an independent view and review can only strengthen a firm's performance plan," she said. 

|

4. Security Training is All the Rage

The number of respondents who said their firm had a security awareness training program for users in place increased again for the third year running, up to 81% from 2018′s 76%. Meanwhile, a similar pattern, though with a totally opposite trajectory, has befallen the "no" category, which shrank from last year's 24% of respondents down to 19% in 2019.

|

5. The Cloud's Price Tag Is Still a Concern

Cost concerns with the cloud may actually be greater than in year's past. Half of all survey respondents said cost was the primary concern preventing their firms from moving to the cloud, up from 47% last year and 39% the year prior. Security is still the second-biggest worry but appears to be shrinking in terms of the overall vote, starting at 44% in 2016 and dropping consistently year over year to 33% in 2019. On the contrary, concerns around performance have remained mostly steady at 30% this year. Still, per Stuebe, many of the comments they've received around this year's survey had to do with the steady grown of the cloud. "This is something that is beyond relevant. It may be expensive, but it is clearly where the industry is going," Stuebe said. 

|

6. One User's Behavior is Another's Security Nightmare

Respondents were asked to identify the three biggest security challenges their law firm faced, and user behavior claimed the top spot with 39% of the vote. However, the "social engineering and phishing," category—which also hinges on a bad actor's ability to manipulate a susceptible user base—wasn't too far behind at 27% and has been growing incrementally year after year since 2016. The number three spot, "client security requirements" came in at 24%. While it departed from the challenges found on the firm's payroll, it still spoke to the all-too human aspect of today's cybersecurity challenges.