John Britton is a cybersecurity expert. With over 13 years of experience, he now works as the Technical Director of Cybersecurity at Corvid Cyberdefense. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies quickly pivoted to a remote workforce and needed a new kind of cybersecurity support. Everyone working from home also caused an abundance of different types of cybersecurity threats and potential vulnerabilities.

"In a whole 365 days, we've gone from being a traditional model to now being a very flexible, adaptive control mechanism that needs to be in place which, in the history of cybersecurity or IT as a whole, has never happened," John says.

In this episode, John discusses the different ways law firms can protect their sensitive data and avoid security breaches, including setting up a protected VPN as well as taking into account additional wifi-connected devices employees (or their kids) could be using at home.

With hackers constantly scanning for vulnerabilities, it's not enough anymore to just set up IT one time and forget it. It's important to keep a cybersecurity firm on board so they can constantly future-proof your business from data breaches, hackers, and spoof websites and emails.

His advice for choosing a cybersecurity firm? Avoid firms that use buzzwords like AI and machine learning — they're making it sound more complicated than it already is. What it really boils down to is being confident in that firm's abilities and asking them what they would do if a worst-case-scenario breach happened. 

John's top suggestions for law firms to protect themselves online is to use complex passwords, enable multi-factor authentication when possible, use a password manager to keep track of your expertly-written passwords, and provide training and awareness for your employees. 

👉 Featured Guest👈

Name: John Britton

What he does: As the Technical Director of Cybersecurity at Corvid Cyberdefense, John oversees the implementation and support teams, helping them protect organizations of all sizes from cyberattacks.

Company: Corvid Cyberdefense

Words of wisdom: “I'm not trying to scare the hell out of everyone but, realistically, for the SMB world — as we very well know because that's where we service — to truly defend yourself, there's no 100%. But, there's a lot of 99.9% security and mechanisms that can be in place."

Where to find John: LinkedIn

💡 Key Ideas 💡

Lessons learned on this episode

★    VPNs are important for legal firms to protect sensitive data —Without a VPN set up, remote employees are vulnerable to hackers trying to steal their data and trick them with legitimate-looking websites. Setting up a VPN, and specifically, one that connects a user behind a protected firewall is crucial to the safety of your legal firm's cybersecurity.

★    Hackers are constantly scanning for vulnerabilities — While your business might not be directly targeted, hackers are constantly scanning devices, passwords, and softwares for potential vulnerabilities they can exploit. All it takes is one computer that wasn't updated, or one password that's easy to crack.

★    "Set it and forget it" cybersecurity doesn't work anymore —There are so many different ways hackers are trying to exploit vulnerabilities that it takes a lot of work for cybersecurity firms to stay on top of it and make sure everything within your business is secure. The old method of a one and done approach to cybersecurity no