World-class cybersecurity for UK law firms and why it’s more important than ever

The evolving threat landscape for UK law firms

The threat landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. Although the prevalence of breaches and attacks among medium (67%) to large businesses (74%) has remained consistently high year on year, around 60% of attacks we now see across industry as a whole stem from identity compromise rather than technical vulnerabilities. Threat actors are increasingly logging into systems using stolen credentials rather than trying to hack into them. This means that phishing, social engineering, and exploiting vulnerabilities in identity management systems are becoming the go-to weapon of choice.

Cyber threat actors are not a one-size-fits-all group. Their motivations, objectives, and methods vary significantly, which in turn shapes the nature of the risk they pose to any organisation. Typically, we see that this tends to fall into four overlapping categories:

• Financially motivated groups focus on profit, using techniques such as ransomware, data theft, and fraud to extort or monetise information. These attacks are often opportunistic, scalable, and disruptive.
• Hacktivists are driven by ideology rather than money, targeting organisations because of the clients they serve, their sector, or perceived values. Their goal is usually disruption, visibility, and reputational damage.
• Nation-state and state-aligned actors usually operate with strategic, long-term objectives aligned to their national interests. Commercial organisations are often targeted as gateways into sensitive supply chains or regulated sectors.
• Insider threats come from individuals with legitimate access to systems and data, including employees, contractors, and third-party partners. Malicious insiders may be intentionally motivated by financial gain, grievance, coercion, or even espionage. On the other hand, while accidental insiders usually have good intentions, they introduce risk through error, poor security hygiene, or simply a lack of awareness.

What these threat actors all understand is that law firms sit at the intersection of confidential data, commercial intelligence, and legal strategy, making them attractive to multiple threat actors simultaneously. 

The cybersecurity challenge facing legal organisations

Law firms are uniquely exposed to cyber risk because they hold highly sensitive client information at the most commercially and legally critical moments.  The impacts of a breach in the legal sector can be profound. For partners, cyber incidents are no longer just an IT issue; they can directly impact client confidentiality, legal privilege, regulatory obligations, insurance position, and the firm’s reputation. OneAdvanced sees effective cyber resilience as a core part of protecting clients and sustaining the firm’s credibility.

Beyond operational disruption or financial cost, the greatest risk is to client trust. Yet we continue to see many firms relying on:

• Legacy on-premise systems that can’t be patched quickly or consistently, leaving known vulnerabilities exposed.
• Outdated assumptions that smaller or mid-sized firms are unlikely targets, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
• Fragmented and reactive security tooling that operates in silos, detects incidents late, and does little to prevent them.
• Hybrid and remote working models that expand the attack surface without the corresponding uplift in security controls needed to manage the additional risk.

Many firms continue to rely on legacy or on-premise systems, making it increasingly difficult to keep pace with modern cyber threats. I often hear from our customers: “Our data is safe because it’s on-premise.” Unfortunately, this is a false sense of security.

Older platforms often lack modern, built-in security controls, depend on ageing infrastructure, and are difficult to patch and maintain consistently. As a result, they can increase risk rather than reduce it. It’s clear that traditional, perimeter-based approaches are no longer sufficient. Firms must instead adopt a more proactive, agile security model that assumes threats are constant and evolving.

By contrast, modern SaaS platforms like OneAdvanced Legal can help law firms stay ahead of both regulatory and threat-driven change. Cloud-based systems allow security updates to be deployed with minimal disruption, embed mature security controls by default, monitor risk in near-real time, and automate elements of compliance that few firms can resource internally at scale.

That said, technology alone is not the answer. Partners should expect these platforms to be implemented with clear governance and guardrails. This is particularly important as artificial intelligence reshapes the threat landscape. While AI can significantly strengthen a firm’s defensive capability, threat actors are already using it to improve the quality, scale, and credibility of social-engineering and phishing attacks. For law firms, one of the most immediate emerging risks is deepfake-enabled fraud, including impersonation of partners, clients, or senior staff to authorise payments or release sensitive information. Addressing this risk requires not just modern technology, but clear processes, verification controls, and partner-level awareness. Unless we manage these threats carefully, we may well find ourselves on the wrong side of this arms race.

The bottom line is that adopting modern platforms is a strategic enabler, but protecting clients and the firm’s reputation depends on how thoughtfully those platforms or processes are governed and used.

What does ‘World-Class Cybersecurity’ really mean?

In my experience, ‘world-class’ starts with one principle: doing the basics brilliantly.

It doesn’t require complexity or novelty. What it does require is clear visibility and control over the systems and workflows that underpin day-to-day legal work.

For partners, this means having confidence that core platforms are continuously tested, maintained, and monitored, so risks are identified and addressed before they become incidents. This is equally important for your own systems, as well as those operated by your critical suppliers. Disciplined patching, lifecycle management, and proactive monitoring are no longer optional. A security-by-design approach, where protection is built in from the outset rather than bolted on later, remains the gold standard.

The practical benefit for law firms that work with us is straightforward: the significant investments that we undertake to achieve this level of security is absorbed at the platform level. So system updates, monitoring, patching, and security orchestration are handled centrally, allowing firms to focus on client service rather than infrastructure management.

At OneAdvanced, we apply this principle through a multi-framework control model aligned to NIST, GDPR, ISO 27001 and other related standards. Cybersecurity is embedded throughout the product lifecycle, supported by active 24/7 monitoring using a combination of automation, specialist teams, and an external Security Operations partner to provide additional depth and resilience.

The OneAdvanced Legal portfolio is designed with this in mind, combining secure cloud hosting, managed infrastructure, encryption, data protection, backup, and disaster recovery within an integrated technology stack. Our practice management and workflow solutions help firms meet and exceed regulatory expectations while remaining agile. Most recently, this approach delivered a 96% compliance score against the Law Society’s Cyber Security Guidance for solicitors.

However, culture and awareness are equally critical. Sustainable resilience depends on consistent behaviours across the firm, supported by regular training and practical guidance. Every informed decision, every suspicious interaction challenged, and every shortcut avoided contributes directly to protecting clients, privilege, and the firm’s reputation.

Compliance and governance as a key differentiator

Regulation has always shaped how law firms operate, but with evolving requirements across GDPR, SRA standards, ICO expectations and now AI governance frameworks, compliance is becoming a strategic advantage. Strong governance demonstrates accountability, trust and a commitment to responsible technology adoption. Firms that embrace clear auditing, reporting, and security by design will distinguish themselves as trustworthy partners, especially as AI becomes more deeply embedded into legal workflows.

Trying to resist AI entirely is unrealistic. It’s the equivalent of refusing to connect your firm to the Internet in the 1990s. Employees will find ways to use these tools regardless, so the priority must be enabling safe practices and responsible governance, not prohibition.

Useful guidance is already emerging from new frameworks such as ISO 42001, the UK Government’s AI Security Code of Practice and, specifically for the legal sector, the Ministry of Justice’s AI action plan, to help firms safely adopt AI in an ethical and transparent way.

What’s next for UK cybersecurity control?

As a CISO, I closely track emerging threats, particularly AI-driven, identity-based attacks that are increasingly difficult for people to detect. Deepfake impersonation, automated vulnerability discovery, and highly adaptive phishing are no longer edge cases, they are becoming routine.

At OneAdvanced, we are responding by embedding AI into our defensive capabilities to improve detection, accelerate response, and strengthen behavioural analysis across our environments.

For law firm partners, however, the message is simpler: cybersecurity must be treated with the same seriousness as client confidentiality and legal privilege. That means investing in people as much as technology and ensuring teams understand that everyday decisions, from email handling to verification of payment requests, directly affect firm-wide risk.

Where firms are still operating unpatched or poorly maintained legacy systems, the priority should be to stop the bleeding. Either modernise those environments or move to platforms that handle patching, monitoring, and security maintenance by design. And for smaller firms that believe they are unlikely targets, the reality is stark: every firm holds data that is valuable to a threat actor, regardless of size.

Looking ahead, resilience will increasingly define reputation. Cybersecurity is not a one-off project – it’s a fundamental component of modern legal practice. Firms that act now will not only reduce risk but also strengthen client trust in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.