Compared to other professions, a legal representative’s line of work is delicate. The main tool of the trade is information, and this is every so often useful only when it is confidential. Indeed, you’ll need to keep a tight lid on the different types of legal documents. So, this element of confidentiality and privacy must evolve from unofficial and unauthorized access to full-on protection.
Secure file transfer is just a way to achieve this high level of data protection. When you can send documents securely, you can put your mind and the mind(s) of your client(s) at rest. Also, when you send data over the Internet, you send a piece of your mind with it. Once that data is compromised, you are bound to lose sleep for a while.
We designed this article to help you reduce, if not eradicate, the risk of hackers gaining access to your legal documents. In this article, we’re going to discuss the following:
- How to send legal documents securely
- How to send confidential data
- How to send large files
Why You Need to Consider Secure Ways to Send Legal Documents
There are several reasons to consider when trying to send legal documents securely. Today, the dynamics of exchanging confidential information are different from what we had a few decades ago. So, here are three reasons you should send your legal documents securely.
Cybercrimes and Criminals Are Everywhere
Cyber security is one of the critical pursuits in the digital age. As most of our businesses are conducted online, hackers keep finding ways to feed themselves fat over our information. Whether it is to blackmail you or straight up use your data (banking details), the data theft trade is booming. You cannot allow yourself to become part of the statistics.
According to a 2020 FBI report on internet crime, the filed complaints about data hacks were almost 800,000 in number. Over $4 billion was lost in the process. Moreover, the number one means through which these data thieves made a name for themselves was email (what is known as phishing scams).
Do you now see why you need to build a digital rampart around every legal document you share with clients and colleagues? Doing otherwise would set yourself up for a hack, and you can be sure that these hackers won’t stop at just blackmailing you. The odds of their selling off this information or making it public, actions that are likely to ruin your career, are also very high.
Sending Legal Documents Securely Demonstrates Your Professionalism to Clients and Colleagues
When you send documents with security in mind, you are saying to your clients, “I care about your case” and “I am a professional.” There is nothing excessive, for instance, about securing a single PDF document containing the names of your witnesses with a password. Sending this password-protected document to your client for cross-examination adds sophistication to your profession.
As we’ve mentioned, securing any legal document or group of documents is another way to prove to your clients that they are important to you. It also shows that you are not being willy-nilly about what they have asked you (and are paying you) to do.
Thus, it is all the good marks of a professional, client-satisfying legal representative to secure legal documents before sending them off. Better yet, you show yourself as the best when you use secure channels that have a solid reputation for being unbreakable digital bulwarks.
You Protect Your Career from Mistakes
There is usually no redo with all things legal. One mistake might cost you a case, a client, and/or a career. When you send a legal document securely and hackers somehow access that information, you either hold the file-sharing service accountable or look elsewhere for the leak. In any case, the fault will not be your own.
In other words, using file sharing and transfer services is another way to avoid complications that could ruin your career. Essentially, you’re trusting professionals to be responsible for providing a measure of defense against intruders and thieves.
Sending Documents Securely
Now, we come to the meat of the matter. There are many things you can do to ensure that your legal documents are safe from predators whenever you connect to the Internet. Three such measures against data theft and harassment are given below.
Secure Your Email Accounts with Strong Passwords
Your email is like a city made up of your precious possessions. Vocations like yours that rely a lot on information are the most attractive to bandits of all kinds. When the playing field is digital, so will the bandits and their methods. That is why you need to take better care of your email accounts.
The most direct way to secure your email accounts and the confidential data that is most likely kept inside them is to use strong passwords. Passwords like “iamalawyer” or “password” or the more provocative “idareyoutoguessmypassword” are not very strong. The best passwords combine upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-numeric symbols like #, %, and &.
A 2022 Hive Systems report explored how long it takes for hackers to break your passwords. You can go through the password table and get inspired to use the most secure passwords. Every character you add to your email password—especially when you combine upper and lowercase letters and numbers and symbols—is an extra reason to have peace of mind.
Moreover, desist from using the same password for everything.
Encrypt Your Files Before Sending Them
Legal documents are prone to data breaches when you send them through the Internet. Hackers can use a variety of ways to interrupt the process. They may scan the contents of your mail, take whatever they need for blackmail or impersonation, and send the mail on its way. You might not even know that your ‘confidential’ legal documents have been compromised until it blows up in your face. This is why you have to consider encrypting your files before delivering them.
Thankfully, there are lots of computer software packages that can help you encrypt digital files. The most popular of these are archiver apps that allow you to ‘zip up’ one or more files and use a password to lock it down. So, any attempt to access the content of the zipped file is met with a request to fill in the unique password.
Although the strength of these zipped files depends on whatever archiving tool you used, it is still way more secure to encrypt digital legal documents. Even when they are just lying on your email account(s), zip them up with a lock and key (password). Also, use strong—not easy—passwords to zip files.
Use Credible and Dedicated File-Sharing Services
We have earlier highlighted the wisdom in, without mincing words, using someone else as a shield against hackers and data thieves. This is where you practice that wisdom, and you do this by engaging the expertise of file-sharing services. After all, this is why such services exist in the first place.
Great file-sharing services are secure by definition. It is one of the biggest ironies of secure file transfers that some of these file-exchange service providers are themselves intrusive or are easily hacked. Using such services is no different from putting your digital legal documents in the line of fire after hiding them inside a digitally thin, see-through, and permeable armor.
The next level is using reputable services that allow you to keep and share files, even though that is not the entirety of the services they provide. The best examples of such services are Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. These are cloud-based platforms developed by some of the biggest business organizations on the planet. So, you can take advantage of the reputation of these mega-companies to send your files securely.
If there is one problem with using the listed cloud-storage services, it would be security. Because these services were not designed to help you only send files securely, they don’t have a security edge over exclusive file-sharing services like FileWhopper.
Here are four reasons for using FileWhopper:
- It lets you use a zero-knowledge encryption
Remember what we said about file encryptions and passwords? FileWhopper uses an encryption method known as zero-knowledge encryption. In simple language, this encryption method ensures that the number of people that can gain access to your documents without due authorization is exactly zero. Not even the people behind FileWhopper can decrypt the file or know what your password is.
So, using FileWhopper to send a legal document to clients and colleagues means that only you and the receiver can open the shared file(s). Exactly zero other people can successfully do so.
- You can send very large files
FileWhopper has no reasonable limits on the size of files or folders you want to send to someone. You can send as little as a few kilobytes of data to as much as 10 terabytes’ worth. Plus, the system is fast regardless of how large a file or folder you are sending.
- It is cheap
Using FileWhopper is a cheaper option than using almost any other file-sharing service. This is not because FileWhopper offers low-quality services. No, it is because you don’t have to subscribe. Instead, you pay whenever you use the service. Also, the transfer price is easy to calculate.
For every transfer with file/folder sizes less than or equal to 5 GB, FileWhopper charges you $0.99. Between this file size range and 11 GB, you pay $1.99. Then, $2.99 for 21 to 30 GB, $3.99 for 31 to 40 GB, and so on. Again, you pay this only once and that is whenever you use FileWhopper.
[fwa-calculator]- It is easy to use
You don’t need to be a genius to use FileWhopper. The UI (user interface) is as simple as it gets. All you have to do is register for the service, choose the file and folder you want to send, and get the transfer ID and link. That’s all.
All in all, knowing how to send legal documents securely is one of the skills you ought to have. It will protect your clients and cases, show you to be a professional, and help you safeguard your career.
Loading...