Nowadays, it is already common knowledge that sharing your password via email or any social media app, is already considered a high-security risk.
However, for some reason, people still do this. This is especially true in most legal and business situations. If this has now become a real security problem, what then could be the solution?
Enter the password manager.
In this article, we will be looking at how we can protect our company’s data by safely sharing passwords in a secure manner. And of course, we will only be able to do this by using a password manager. One good example is the sharing of hard data and digital keys in a critical service/business like a law firm.
How Do You Share Passwords Securely In a Law Firm?
According to the American Bar Association Tech Report of 2019: A survey that year shows 26% of respondents say that they were hit by a security breach. Unfortunately, there was a 3% rise in that statistic from the previous year of 2018. Not alarming, but definitely significant.
On the other hand, the good news is, cybersecurity is getting better than ever. Along with the need for law firms to operate with precision and uncompromising confidentiality, is the continuous innovation of password management technology. This is for the purpose of adapting, containing, and neutralizing risks that come with the adversarial nature of the business of litigation.
First and foremost on any client’s mind is trust. Whether they’d be partners of the firm or someone who is a direct employee of the company, the margin for error in losing trust is so tiny that efforts to protect the company’s data must be doubled.
1. Add Your Client as Guest
Acquire a reputable password manager software for your team, and add your client or a collaborating company as a guest. This way you can share passwords which are encrypted and secure. You can also keep the sharing only within the password management system, and only within the assigned group of people. No outside apps.
The manager itself is an encrypted environment that is designed to share passwords securely. No more sending sensitive data via email.
2. Share Your Passwords Securely within the Team
In order to reduce the risk of human error and misplaced information, you can go ahead and use a password manager to enable your employees to share passwords. They can do this only inside the system at the same time keeping the integrity of the critical information intact. To achieve this, you must do the following:
• Add Your Employees as Full Team Members
Add each one of your legal associates to the team password. This allows everyone to safely share with everyone else inside the team. The team itself is encapsulated in a protected environment wherein just in case you are in doubt, you can go ahead and just do a few clicks to remove potential threats.
• Multi-Tier Sharing
This advanced type of sharing allows far hierarchy and some limits to some access that are on a need-to-know basis only. For instance, not all associates of the firm get access to top- level credentials. Multi-Tiering sharing also allows for certain passwords to be available only to personnel who have top-level clearance.
It also features the capability to let you share a client’s password with a senior lawyer associate exclusively. And when they get it they have the option to share it with others to their discretion, as well as according to the hierarchy in the system.
What’s more, the owner of said password can track every single change, edit and sharing of the password, always being in control and rolling back any unwanted changes.
3. Unshare Your Passwords after Sharing
In the event that a case in court is concluded and closed, there will no longer be the need for guest’s access to continue. Thus, you can go ahead and unshare it and continue keeping your data safe. The opposite will happen if you have used an email in sharing your password causing it to be left out there, for as long as it is not deleted. Unsharing your password through the manager and updating it maintains the confidentiality and security of your data and systems.
The Zero-Knowledge Encryption: What is it? And how does it work?
Zero-knowledge encryption is a method wherein a service provider can securely store your information for you, and you, the owner, are the only one who has access to it. And in most cases, providers with this feature don’t even know what the key is to the information they are storing for you.
Technically speaking, the provider/password manager encrypts your file where it allows you to create a master password that only you as the owner know. The provider doesn’t even know what file they have encrypted for you. Even if the government tries to open it up for whatever purpose, all they will be able to pull up is encrypted and unintelligible data.
To put it in a simple analogy, your secret data would be something similar to this: Your treasures are put in a safety deposit box located inside a bank. You pay the bank for storage of your valuables while it protects the box with its thick walls.
Imagine this, the metal box serves as the encryption since no one else knows what’s in it except you. And then, the box is locked with a lock that is not provided by the bank, but by a padlock of your choice provided by you. Also, it comes with keys that only you have, the bank doesn’t even have a copy of your keys by default.
At Passcamp, we guarantee that your data is kept with Zero-knowledge proof, featuring all other essential cybersecurity technology that is available today. This way, no opponent of the law firm and its clients will be able to access any of its sensitive data that is being entrusted to us, your reliable password management partner.
Wrapping Up
It’s an effective double-blind security method that adds to your peace of mind as an owner as well as strengthens the integrity of the provider’s system. Choose a password manager that has zero-knowledge encryption so that you can be assured of a safe and well-insulated sharing of your passwords.
