Wilkin Chapman relies on Check Point for its secure environment and prevention of cyber-attacks

Wilkin Chapman LLP solicitors
Wilkin Chapman LLP is the largest law firm in Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire, UK. As a full service law firm, Wilkin Chapman provides legal services for both businesses and individuals.

Protecting Reputation
“A solicitors’ practice is built on reputation,” says Dean Hall, Head of Technology and Facilities, Wilkin Chapman solicitors. “If our reputation is damaged as the result of a highly publicized data breach, it would have an adverse impact on the firm.”

For Hall, the challenge is keeping up with a changing threat landscape, especially with the firm’s limited resources to appoint a dedicated cyber security expert.

“From an IT perspective, our focus is on refreshing our infrastructure,” says Hall. “Our teams want to be able to work from any office, share documents, securely access information from mobile devices, and we need to provide a service that allows them to do so.”

In particular, Hall wanted to strengthen the security between branch offices. The web filtering solution was also out of support, he adds: “We wanted to increase our security across the board. We’re not large enough to employ our own security manager, so we needed an external expert to manage security on our behalf and make us aware of solutions and threats.”

Advanced Threat Protection
Wilkin Chapman solicitors implemented Check Point Next Generation Threat Prevention & SandBlast (NGTX) with Check Point R80 Security Management.

The solution, implemented and managed by SJG Digital, a Check Point partner and IT security specialist, ensures the same technology runs across all devices at each Wilkin Chapman location. NGTX delivers a significant performance increase using a wide range of threat prevention techniques, including detecting malware before it enters the network and converting content to a safe format before it is opened. This multi-layered approach ensures Wilkin Chapman is protected from all known and unknown cyber-attacks.

Check Point SmartEvent provides fully integrated threat visibility in R80 giving real time security insights across the entire firm and lowers the complexity of managing cyber security even with multiple devices and branch  locations.

Stronger protection, elevating security consciousness
The implementation of the Check Point solution began in early 2018. The change is significant, he adds: “It’s made a cultural impact. Staff are now better educated and more aware about the complexity and regularity of cyber threats and what they can do to protect themselves and the firm, which has helped to reduce our exposure to potential threats.”

With R80 Security Management, Wilkin Chapman enjoys granular insight into cyber threats. “Check Point SmartEvent allows us to drill down into the real detail,” says Stuart Green of SJG Digital. “Most firewalls will tell you a destination or source IP address somewhere but Check Point’s system presents this and much, much more as an easy-to-read visual graph. It provides visibility of the whole threat landscape affecting the firm and that really matters today.”

With the full threat visibility provided by the Check Point solution, Halland his team are better equipped to manage the firm’s growing cybersecurity needs. Policies and rules can be introduced and rolled out firmwideusing the R80 management console. And SandBlast’s threatemulation and extraction features ensure that every email attachment isautomatically cleaned and reconstructed, ensuring complete networksecurity with minimal involvement from the IT team.

Going forward, the key will be to accept that the cyber securitylandscape is constantly changing. Wilkin Chapman will continue to adaptand strengthen its security posture and protection capabilities; mobilesecurity and endpoint protection are next on Hall’s roadmap.

“It’s an escalating arms race between the hackers and those trying tokeep them out. Most firms can’t keep up with the pace of change. Werely on Check Point and SJG Digital to keep us secure and advise us onbest practices.

“The world is changing, the way we work is changing. Working withmobile devices requires the secure sharing of documents. We’re in a farstronger position to develop our remote working strategy with CheckPoint,” Hall concludes.