Law firms are opening themselves up to considerable risks from security breaches and corporate espionage, a leading IT solicitor said this week following recent research on firms' digital security practices.

Kit Burden, partner at City firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, said firms must sharpen up their protection policies after a report revealed that one-third of solicitors' practices do not have a comprehensive digital security policy in place - despite 73% accessing their systems remotely.

The telephone survey of 100 senior legal practitioners commissioned by digital security provider Evolution revealed that most legal practitioners are relying on insecure e-mail access when working out of the office.

Two-thirds asked colleagues to access e-mails on their behalf, while two in five had e-mails read out to them over the telephone.

Mr Burden said: 'Protection of information is central to what solicitors do, given their fiduciary duty of confidentiality to clients, and the type of information they are dealing with.

Merger and acquisition information in particular is the most commercial information you can find - the risks of corporate espionage and electronic eavesdropping are high.'

He added: 'Ritual use of encryption and robust firewalls are a must.

We estimate that my own firm is subject to ten attempted hacks a day.'

One in ten solicitors interviewed said their firm had experienced a digital security breach in the past year, with 6% having lost a client as a result.

Some 65% said they felt digital security risks were increasing in the legal industry, while 40% said they felt their company brand or personal reputation was vulnerable to risks associated with breaches.

Solicitors identified e-mail misuse as the greatest source of risk, followed by computer virus, hackers and disgruntled employees.

Of the 100 solicitors surveyed, 69 were from firms of ten partners or more.

Rachel Rothwell