Okta Businesses at Work 2024 – Legal Applications are the Growth Leader

Okta has application usage data which you simply will not find anywhere else. This year’s report draws data from their anonymized 18,800 global customer base. Okta is a leader in identity and access management products. You may download the full “Okta Businesses at Work 2024” report here.

Growth in app categories: Legal software is the leader in customer growth

Source: Okta (My Annotations) – Growth in App Categories

Okta kicks off this year’s report with a spotlight on Legal applications, which was the leading app category in growth of number of customers.

“There’s no time for deals or
contracts to get hung up in legal. So, as we look
across the most popular app categories, it’s no
surprise that legal tools have locked up a win,
claiming by far the highest growth by number
of customers (35% YoY) and substantial 34%
YoY growth by number of unique users.
Apps
including Ironclad, LexisNexis, and LegalZoom
drive this remarkable growth story. (Fun fact:
Ironclad contract management software was
our eighth-fastest-growing app in 2022.)”

-Okta (my bold type)

Let’s look at those three applications:

Ironclad – Offers Contract Management software, which includes moving sales contracts through the processes of review and sign-off to speed the business process.

LexisNexis – Provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics, now including Generative AI. LexisNexis is a premier product in legal research.

LegalZoom – Its online platform for business formation helps entrepreneurs by providing legal, tax and compliance products and expertise.

With that promising look at the growth in Legal applications, let’s take a look at four more charts in the Okta report.

Growth of the 50 most popular apps

Source: Okta

There are two leaders here. 1Password is the fastest growing application by number of customers at 39% YoY. Amazon Business with the fastest growing by number of unique users at 89% YoY growth. Law firms are ramping up usage of password managers like 1Password as one of the essential tools to prevent phishing and social engineering exploits.

Not to be missed by law firms is the growth of KnowBe4 at over 20%. KnowBe4 is a Security Awareness Training product, with a focus on phishing awareness. In 2022 I cited that KnowBe4 was the leading Security Awareness solution used by 62% of law firms surveyed in the International Legal Technology Association’s 2022 Technology Survey.

Most popular apps

Source: Okta

It’s easy to see the trend of law firms in the “Overall” ranking. Microsoft 365 is rapidly being adopted, as firms migrate from other Microsoft on-prem products. Number five, Zoom, and number eight, DocuSign, are nearly ubiquitous at law firms. Number ten is KnowBe4, the Security Awareness training SaaS application.

Fastest-growing apps by number of customers

Source: Okta

Data compliance applications make a first time appearance in the fastest growing app ranking by number of customers. Vanta holds the number one position with 338% YoY growth. Drata ranks number six, with 91% YoY growth. Data compliance software is growing at law firms as firms are subject to regulatory and client requirements.

Most popular security tool categories

Source: Okta

Okta entitles this section: “The perimeter shifts.”

They observe that VPN/firewall continues to lead the security tool category, as it has since 2020. However, deployment of VPN/firewall grew 12% last year versus 31% in the prior year. 57% of customers have deployed VPN/firewall tools.

The second fastest growing category in security tools is Endpoint Management and Security, deployed by 43% of customers. This category has grown consistently since the emergence of work-from-home.

For those interested in legal or enterprise technology there is much more in the Okta report worth looking at in detail. You may find the report here.

– Maureen

My Four Favorite Charts from the ILTA 2022 Technology Survey

The International Legal Technology Association’s 2022 survey is a broad treasure trove of data reported from 541 law firms.

There are 11 major topics including Infrastructure, Document Management, Practice Management, and Business Continuity.

My focus is on four of the twenty-seven questions surveyed in the Security section.

  1. Password Management
ILTA 2022 Technology Survey

Password managers are one of the most highly recommended solutions for security. They help with: using complex passwords, deterring repeat usage of passwords, and providing secure storage for passwords. There is a learning curve to using a password manager, but once I got up to speed, I wondered how I would live without it. We have so many passwords to juggle these days. I am surprised that 50% of respondents are not providing a password manager.

2. Multi-factor Authentication

ILTA 2022 Technology Survey

Perhaps the single most recommended security mitigation is multi-factor authentication (MFA). Here we see Duo Security (a Cisco company) is the leader at 45%. There are three Microsoft solutions listed which total 27%.

In legal tech, it’s notable when a third-party solution is more widely adopted than a Microsoft solution as most law firms operate on the Microsoft stack.

3. What do You Secure with MFA?

ILTA 2022 Technology Survey

The largest response is VPN/Remote Access. Then Office 365. It’s very good to see high adoption of MFA for these widely used applications.

4. Which Phishing, Vishing, Social Engineering, or Security Awareness Program?

ILTA 2022 Technology Survey

KnowBe4 is the stand-out at 62%. Others used are Mimecast, Traveling Coaches, Proofpoint, managed service providers, and solutions developed in-house. Only 7% reported “None.” As phishing and social engineering are the cause of about 90% of exploits, law firms are wise to have these programs in place.

You may access the full data-rich report or the executive report from ILTA. Here is the download page.

-Maureen

Your Network Has Been Locked: What I Learned at ILTACON 2022

It was wonderful to meet with you all! Last week was the first fully in-person annual educational conference of the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) since 2019. ILTACON is truly an event of peer-to-peer sharing. Many of the members have relationships dating back decades. Having an in-person event again was fantastic.

Security was one of the most in-demand topics. There were sessions on phishing, ransomware, breaches, and solutions. Here are three takeaways from sessions which I attended on what to do when a breach occurs. Note: I am not a cybersecurity expert. These are commonsense points which anyone can learn from.

Darkside Ransomware Email – Source: Acronis
  1. First Call

At 10 PM on Saturday night, Asher in Support gets a call from an attorney who says, “I’m looking at a screen which says, ‘Your network has been locked!'” Asher was educated to escalate any such messages immediately. Let’s assume that this message gets to the CIO within minutes.

Who does the CIO call first?

  • Is it a contracted or pre-vetted cybersecurity services provider?
  • Is it the cybersecurity insurance carrier?

In a session which included both a panelist from a top cybersecurity services provider and a panelist from a major cybersecurity insurance carrier, each argued that they should be the first call. Each may have distinct objectives.

The cybersecurity insurance carrier will immediately send in their SWAT team. This expertise may be quite welcome at the law firm. A good carrier will bring great expertise to bear. At the same time, law firms report that when the insurance carrier team arrives, they lose control of the process. The firm IT team may be sidelined, by contract. The insurance company may have as its top priority forensics. One of their objectives is to discover if the law firm were out of compliance with the policy.

The cybersecurity services company will also send in their SWAT team and bring great expertise and experience to bear. If the firm has vetted the services company their objectives should be aligned with the law firm’s.

Objectives include stopping exfiltration of firm data and business continuity. Law firms will want to safely get back to business-as-usual as quickly as possible.

2. Breach Counsel

One of the first things that the cybersecurity insurance carrier will do is to get their breach counsel engaged in the process so that communications are privileged. Law firms are uniquely positioned to get their own attorneys involved. Whether it is the insurance carrier’s attorney or a firm attorney, involve an attorney on all communications immediately. There will be public communications following the breach and perhaps legal action. Need I say more?

3. CIO Fiat to Shut Down Systems

When there is a breach, time is of the essence. Data may still be exfiltrating. While no law firm wants to do so, the best action may be to shut down all systems immediately. The moment when the firm’s data is flowing out to the hackers is not a good time to educate and negotiate with the firm’s executive team regarding shutting down systems. The CIO should have clear authority in advance to shut down systems.

Bonus: Have a Plan

Your firm is a target. Services, like Dark Utilities, make it easy for hackers to to set up a command center (C2) for malicious operations. Prices for C2-as-a-Service start at EUR 9.99. Easy, inexpensive tools mean that firms of any size are a target for “drive-by” attacks.

Even while your full incident recovery program is in development, it’s time well-spent to have a plan for the three points above in order to respond quickly.

One of the benefits of ILTACON is that we learn what has worked for other law firms in real world settings. Each firm should assess their own response plan.

See you in Orlando at #ILTACON23!

-Maureen

Get the Most from iManage Work® on Tablets and Smartphones with LINK

Our “baby,” the LINK App, is a full-fledged teenager now, growing by leaps and bounds and taking the car out for a spin.

If you have not seen LINK in the past 12 months, you’ll find this demo video an eye-opener. Split-screen mode and multi-tabbed view are a fantastically productive way to work on tablets. You work in several lives screens.

This new demo video is a quick way to see some of LINK’s best workflows. Use the timeline to go directly to the feature which you want to see. Let us know what you think. To schedule a demo, write to us: [email protected].

0:00 – Authentication
0:34 – LINK Home Screen
1:42 – SharePoint / Portal / Web Resources
2:15 – My Files in LINK
3:11 – Navigate in iManage Work
3:22 – Split-screen Mode & Multi-tab View
5:57 – Search iManage
7:30 – Quick Lookup – Client/Matter & Doc ID
8:42 – List All Files
9:36 – PDF Viewer Features
11:02 – Annotation
12:25 – Check-in to iManage
13:20 – Email a File from iManage
15:15 – Edit with the Word App
17:15 – Check-in to iManage
18:20 – Compare Edited Version
19:00 – Inbox: Search, Sort, Filter
19:28 – Open an NRL, Annotate, & Email
20:13 – Predictive & Multiple Filing to Outlook and iManage Folders
22:25 – Compose an Email, Attach a File in iManage, Send & File

Our next ILTA webinar is: “Email Management Integrated with DMS in the LINK App” on October 20th. You’ll see LINK’s email usability features as well as predictive filing to Outlook and DMS folders. Learn more and register HERE.

-Maureen

And…it’s on! ILTA>ON 2020, Aug. 24-28

ILTA ON 2020 Logo

It’s all virtual and we can’t wait!

We are delighted to sponsor the all new ILTA>ON.

We will be showing all of the latest and greatest with our LINK App.

Read all about it here.

More details to come!

-Maureen

Protect Your Data in a Remote Work Environment – ILTA Educational Webinar

Working remotely became a neccessity almost overnight. But were firm architectures ready? Two common entry points to system hacks, social engineering and network vulnerabilities, threaten the security of remote working. In this session, Mobile Helix CEO and Chief Architect, Seth Hallem, will describe these vulnerabilities and propose practical and actionable ways to address these weaknesses using safe browsing, network proxies, authentication, authorization, and DLP. These mitigations apply to both desktop and mobile devices.

This is an ILTA Educational Webinar. It is free to members as well as to non-members as part of ILTA’s COVID-19 content. Non-members may register for a free login-in.

WATCH THE RECORDED WEBINAR HERE

Outline:

I. Social engineering: Phishing, “Water Hole,” SIM card swaps

   Mitigations including:

    A. Safe browsing

    B. No SMS

    C. Web filtering via proxying

    D. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): printing, recipient checking, metadata filtering

II. Network vulnerabilities

    Mitigations including:

    A. Layered security

    B. Filter – proxy

    C. Authenticate the source – certificates, IP fencing, DoS defense

    D. Authenticate the user – AD credentials, complex passwords, SSO

    E. Authorize – manage email attachments

III. Example of a secure architecture

We welcome you and your questions on June 10th.

Write to us at: contact@mobilehelix dot com.

-Maureen

ILTA LegalSEC Summit 2019 Redux

We are back from a busier than ever ILTA LegalSEC Summit. People attend LegalSEC to genuinely learn how they can keep their law firms protected. This is no easy feat because cybersecurity is a moving target. While Big Law firms participate, there is great value for small and medium sized firms where there might not be a CISO. The Director of IT or network engineer might be the security department. The two or three days at LegalSEC are packed with information.

This year the well-received keynote by William R. Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was recorded. Another popular session was “Leverage These Free Resources to Up Your Security and Governance Game.” Both of these and several other LegalSEC 2019 sessions can be heard at no cost by ILTA members, here.

Heads up, save the date. Next year’s LegalSEC Summit 2020 will be June 1-3 and the location…San Antonio at the Marriott Riverwalk. If you have visited the Riverwalk you know that this is a fantastic location. Hope to see you there.

Mobile Helix LINK at ILTA LegalSEC Summit 2019, June 3-5

We love LegalSEC!

and we are a sponsor again this year. We will be at Table number one showing LINK’s latest mobile DLP features.

Stop by to say hi and to see a LINK demo. Our LINK app’s encryption, containerization, and authentication provide strong security for your documents and data. Now LINK offers key word and metadata filtering, recipient checking, and restriction on emailing files from classified workspaces.

This year’s keynote speaker is William R. Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

Register here

ILTA LegalSEC Summit 2019 Keynote Speaker William R. Evanina

LegalSEC Summit 2019 is designed for technology professionals at every level who manage security, information governance and data privacy tech projects and initiatives in support of the practice of law. This exciting two-day Summit offers premier learning and a connected networking environment to focus on information security challenges faced by the legal industry.

ILTA Webinar: Mobile, Secure NetDocuments Workflows: NetDocuments® DMS + LINK Encrypted App

Do you use NetDocuments® DMS today or are you evaluating NetDocuments? If you are looking for an encrypted container app approach for mobile NetDocuments DMS, our LINK app may provide that extra client-side security that you are looking for.

Date and time: Monday, February 11, 2019, Noon EST

Watch a recording of the demo here

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ILTA Webinar: Mobility for Lawyers – Greater Productivity and Ease of Use

Mobility is progressing rapidly. In the past 6 months, with our 3.4 release, our LINK app has added capabilities that enable lawyers to be truly responsive and productive from tablets and smartphones. 

View the recording of the webinar here. 

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