Data security at law firms continued to be a challenge in 2021, with professionals working from home, trickling back into the office, then being sent home again to wrap up the year. New threats to data security emerged, along with new best practices for protecting law firm and client data. This past year’s developments can be used as a forecast for upcoming law firm data security. Advancing best practices to protect against emerging threats have developed, and security for work-from-anywhere situations has improved.

Vulnerability has long been a primary focus in cybersecurity, but its cultural significance has increased. Its use broadened beyond the borders of academic and technical disciplines over the past two years. A host of somewhat interconnected and overlapping, cumulatively catastrophic events from COVID-19 and energy failures due to wildfires and other extreme climactic events to ongoing supply chain disruptions and delays—some caused by cybersecurity incidents—have demonstrated our shared vulnerability.