We cannot deny that data breaches are on the rise. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of breaches tracked by the national Identity Theft Resources Center is up, and the FBI is reporting a notable increase in ransomware. Meanwhile, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman says data breaches in his state are up 40 percent over last year.
At legal technology industry conferences across the country, I hear rising concern about the potential for hackers to get at the collections of client data that law firms store and process for e-discovery. According to a 2016 study of data breach costs by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach is now $4 million.
