Larcomes Solicitors with offices in Portsmouth and Waterlooville in Hampshire are delighted to announce that we have recently received notification that we have been successful in gaining the UK government’s Cyber Essential Certification, which demonstrates that the firm have a good level of all-around information security, have implemented the essential security controls and levels of protection, and have done all that is reasonable to protect the firm from a cyber-attack.
Cyber Essentials is a relatively new Government-backed and industry supported scheme to guide businesses in protecting themselves against cyber threats. Only last Tuesday, Her Majesty’s Government announced the UK strategy for cyber security and MPs referred to the importance of UK businesses working towards achieving the Cyber Essentials Certification.
During the course of the past week alone we have seen Tesco Bank with some 40,000 accounts suspended following suspicious activity and as announced today 9,000 of these accounts have had monies fraudulently withdrawn. Earlier this year, the Government announced that two-thirds of big UK businesses have been hit by a cyber-attack in the past year. Most of the attacks involved viruses, spyware or malware, the Cyber Security Breaches Survey says and worrying they state that quarter of large firms experience a cyber-breach at least once a month. Approximately 30% of cyber-attacks attack Small to Medium sized businesses (SMEs).
Here at Larcomes, we identified back in 2015 that we wanted to gain this accreditation to ensure that we did not become the target of such an attack and we then began the process of gaining this accreditation. As a result, we partnered with one of the leading award winning Cybercrime companies, ThinkMarble who equip SMEs with resilient and robust defences against cybercrime. They offer support through their team of leading UK experts in IT risk management and they all have a strong understanding of SME security needs. ThinkMarble have worked closely with us to ensure that we had all our IT infrastructure and processes in place and they have assisted us in gaining this accreditation. We are proud to state that Larcomes are one of only a handful of law firms in the South that have achieved this prestigious certification.
With cyber-attack rapidly on the increase, it is important to know that your personal details cannot be easily breached and with that in mind, we would urge all law firms to follow our lead and gain this accreditation to ensure that they minimise this risk on behalf of their clients. We would also recommend for peace of mind that everyone who needs legal advice should insist on working with a firm that holds this standard.
We were the 2015 holders of the Hampshire Law Society Local Law Firm of the Year and we are the current holders of the Hampshire Law Society “Most outstanding Solicitor in Hampshire”. We were shortlisted earlier this year for the 2016 “regional law firm” of the year by the Solicitors Journal and in October 2016 we were awarded regional law firm of the year award by Symphony Legal for our outstanding contribution to our clients, local community and various charities that we support. We are ISO accredited and we also hold Lexcel accreditation, which is the Law Society’s quality mark.
8th November 2016