UK law firm McMillan Williams Solicitors (MW) has selected email security company Tessian to prevent what it describes as insider threats on email that could put data at risk. With hundreds of new clients each month, protecting the large amount of customer data is a top priority for the firm. MW Solicitors realised that emails being sent to the wrong person and employees sending company sensitive information to unauthorized emails were two key problems that could compromise the firm’s data security.
David Fazakerley, CIO, MW Solicitors
David Fazakerley, CIO, at MW Solicitors said, “Due to the pace of work, mistakes can easily happen on email, especially due to features like auto-complete, which can lead to an email being accidentally sent to the wrong person.”
One of the most common mistakes that can lead to a misdirected email is an employee inputting the wrong client email into a case management system, which can be as simple as inputting “.com” instead of “.co.uk”.
The law firm also implemented Tessian to prevent data exfiltration via email to personal or non-business domains. If an employee sends an email to an unauthorized email account, MW Solicitors’ Risk and Compliance team is now able to easily detect this activity in real-time, as a result of Tessian’s machine learning technology.
For Fazakerley, deploying Tessian was a critical part of building a culture of transparency when it comes to data security. “If all employees have an understanding of the security solutions in place, this will improve employee awareness and accountability”, he said. “If employees are armed with the right tools to prevent mistakes from occurring in the first place, then damage can be minimized or avoided altogether.”