Cybercrime dangers are many, complex and ever-changing. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a data breach or other cyber-related scam or theft. Cyber criminals have considerable resources and expertise, and can cause significant damage to their targets. Cyber criminals specifically target law firms as law firms regularly have funds in their trust accounts and client data that is often very valuable. This article, from the December 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, reviews the specific cybercrime dangers law firms need to be concerned about, and how they can mitigate their risks.

People inside your office have . . . [more]

Last week consulting firms Above the Law and Good2BSocial released their joint Social Law Firm Index ranking the Am Law 50 law firms’ social media presence. Ranking was compiled in terms of:

• Reach – “total number of unique people who had an opportunity to see the firm’s content.”
• Engagement – “actual interaction with the firm’s content via social media.”
• Owned media – “An assessment of the firm’s own site (including microsites) based on, among other things, the proportion of non-promotional content, frequency of updates, and shareability of content.”

Access to the Index is free, but you will need to . . . [more]

The Manitoba Court of Appeal recently held, in Ducharme v. Borden, 2014 MBCA 5, that electronic evidence did not require expert support for a judge to deal with its admissibility.

We do not endorse the judge’s view that electronic media evidence is of no value unless supported by expert evidence. Expert evidence is limited to information which is likely outside the experience and knowledge of a judge or jury.(para 15)

On the other hand, the issues with such evidence did not make it a matter for judicial notice, either.

While the burden of authenticating evidence for admission was . . . [more]

Cybercrime dangers are many, complex and ever-changing. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a data breach or other cyber-related scam or theft. Cyber criminals have considerable resources and expertise, and can cause significant damage to their targets. Cyber criminals specifically target law firms as law firms regularly have funds in their trust accounts and client data that is often very valuable. This article, from the December 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, reviews the specific cybercrime dangers law firms need to be concerned about, and how they can mitigate their risks.

Almost everyone has data in . . . [more]

Spending time at a law school allowed me to see something very disturbing; law students are actively and deliberately told by law schools to expunge all social media activity.

The clear message to students is: Do Not Have Any Web-Presence Whatsoever.

Given this message, it’s no wonder that most Canadian lawyers view social media with fear and take no part in it. It also explains the shocked looks when I asked my class to create Twitter and LinkedIn accounts – then use them for class participation. Oh the horror!

Imagine if I had asked them to create blogs!

In my . . . [more]

The Russian Federation is the fourth country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (the ECC). The UNCITRAL press release gives the details.

The other countries now in the Convention, and among which it is in force, are Singapore, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Russia’s ratification is a step towards spreading the benefits around, and several other countries are moving towards ratifying too.

Should Canada be interested? The Uniform Law Conference discussed the policy questions about how it might be implemented here, in 2010, and adopted a uniform implementation statute in . . . [more]

An article in this week’s Law Times notes another court decision, this time in Ontario, approving substitute service by Facebook. In other words, counsel showed the court that there was no other reasonable way of getting the documents to the party to be served, and that sending to FB was likely to reach the party.

The author says that this should be the norm.

The requirement for hand-delivered document service, while historically sensible, is somewhat archaic in this electronic age. Successful service should be all about making sure that the person is aware of the document. For those of us

Last week I wrote about the high cost of the NSA’s aggressive data-gathering efforts on US-based technology companies. These companies have lost billion-dollar contracts and suffered user exoduses as both corporations and individuals, especially those outside of the US, worry that the NSA has back-door access to their private data. Will these concerns be addressed by the reforms to the NSA announced by President Obama last week?

The Verge offers an in-depth analysis of Obama’s promised reforms with a scorecard measuring the effectiveness of those reforms against the recommendations of the Presidential review panel that were delivered late last year. . . . [more]

I recently read Ron Deibert’s, “Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace” and so my ears perked up a few days ago when I heard Deibert talking to Matt Galloway on Metro Morning.

Diebert, who is also the Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs here in Toronto, was talking about surveillance at the upcoming winter Olympic Games in Sochi. He considers surveillance in Russian society to already be “near total,” and mentions a recent Russian directive that will ensure that all communications at the games are “collected, archived for three years . . . [more]

Cybercrime dangers are many, complex and ever-changing. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a data breach or other cyber-related scam or theft. Cyber criminals have considerable resources and expertise, and can cause significant damage to their targets. Cyber criminals specifically target law firms as law firms regularly have funds in their trust accounts and client data that is often very valuable. This article, from the December 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, reviews the specific cybercrime dangers law firms need to be concerned about, and how they can mitigate their risks.

At home, coffee shops, restaurants, . . . [more]

Cybercrime dangers are many, complex and ever-changing. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of a data breach or other cyber-related scam or theft. Cyber criminals have considerable resources and expertise, and can cause significant damage to their targets. Cyber criminals specifically target law firms as law firms regularly have funds in their trust accounts and client data that is often very valuable. This article, from the December 2013 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, reviews the specific cybercrime dangers law firms need to be concerned about, and how they can mitigate their risks.

Lost or stolen laptops, smartphones . . . [more]

The concept of ‘net neutrality’ has taken a hit in the United States. As reported by Ian Chant in the Library Journal on Tuesday the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “overstepped its bounds as a regulator in putting those rules in place.”

In the decision to Verizon vs. Federal Communications Commission, Circuit Judge, David S. Tatel opens with this statement:

For the second time in four years, we are confronted with a Federal Communications Commission effort to compel broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic the same regardless of source—or