Legal departments are prime targets for hackers.

• Position: CYBERSECURITY - Brief article

High-profile breaches have led to scrutiny on third-party vendors' access rights to an organization's data. An area that hasn't received much attention, though, according to David White and Matthew Cohen, of AlixPartners LLP, "is the downstream transfer of corporate data in connection with litigation and regulatory matters to e-discovery vendors, outside counsel, experts, and opposing parties."

The authors said legal departments hold a company's most valuable and secret documents, making them a prime target for hackers. It's a security gap they urged organizations to address. In a recent Metropolitan Corporate Counsel article they wrote that contracts with outside vendors should ensure they are legally obligated to adequately protect the company's data and are fully liable for loss or inadvertent disclosure, and that the company has the right to audit and enforce these requirements. The goal is to ensure the service provider's...