Law Firm Protects Confidential Client Information
By Cisco and Weltman, Weinberg & Reis CO., L.P.A.
Weltman, Weinberg & Reis (WWR) depends on its security solution to protect sensitive consumer data and maintain its sterling reputation. For more than 70 years, WWR has been a leader in providing collection services and legal representation to creditors. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, WWR is the largest creditor's rights law firm in the United States. The company depends on its network to connect 1000 employees at nine offices, and to provide real-time status information on cases and files. Protecting the sensitive client information that resides on its network is a top priority for WWR. Much of the firm's application data contains confidential or nonpublic information (NPI). Along with privacy concerns, maintaining data integrity is also important, because customer contact records and other business information is often used in legal proceedings. Records that have become corrupted or inaccurate because of a security or network issue can result in a total breakdown of the process and a significant loss to the firm.
"œWe act on behalf of many of the largest lending institutions in the country, and security is important because of the personal consumer information contained within our systems," says Robert Baird, director of IT at WWR. "œA security breach would damage the reputation of our firm, along with that of the client whose information has been compromised." Baird continues, "œOur regulators are in effect the very same clients we service, and we get audited by them on a regular basis. We need to give clients confidence that their data, while under our control, is well protected." WWR needed a flexible, manageable security solution that could provide a defense-in-depth approach, safeguarding not only the network perimeter, but also the firm's internal network all the way to the desktop level.
