The SST Insider – July 2026
From the Helm
Q2 focused on manufacturing. We spent three months helping manufacturers see what their technology is actually doing versus what they assume it’s doing, and what that gap costs them when left unaddressed.
Starting this month, our focus shifts to law firms. Attorney-client confidentiality isn’t just a professional obligation; it’s a liability exposure that runs through every file, every email, and every vendor a firm works with. Few industries face higher stakes for data protection, and few have controls that match those stakes.
Our Q3 focus starts with access. Who can see a file? Who should be able to see it? And whether your firm could answer that question today if a client or regulator asked.
Over the next three months, we’ll work through this in stages: what leaves your firm’s walls and what you can prove happened if something goes wrong. This month focuses on the first piece, access.
If your firm hasn’t closely reviewed who has access to what in the past year, this is a good time to start that conversation.
— SST Leadership
Client Success Story
When Backups Aren’t Enough
When a security incident disrupted operations, this organization believed its backup strategy would be sufficient to recover quickly. The backups worked as intended, and data was restored. Yet the business still faced days of downtime because recovery required more than restoring files. Without a defined incident response process, the organization lacked a structured way to contain the issue, assess its scope, or coordinate a return to normal operations.
Secure Strategic Technologies worked with the client to close that gap.
Rather than relying solely on backups as the recovery strategy, SST helped the organization build operational safeguards to respond more effectively in the future. These measures included continuous monitoring to improve early detection, containment controls to limit the spread of an incident, and a documented incident response plan with clear roles, escalation steps, and communication procedures. SST also facilitated a tabletop exercise so the team could practice the plan before facing another real-world disruption.
As a result, the organization shifted from a reactive recovery model to a more structured, resilient security posture. The client is now better positioned to detect issues sooner, contain incidents more quickly, reduce downtime, and lower the risk of recurrence. Backups remain an important layer of protection, but they are now supported by processes and controls that safeguard operations, not just data.
— Operations Manager
Proactive Insights
Five Low-Cost Ways to Control Who Has Access
Do you know who at your firm can access client files unrelated to their cases?
– Role-based access limits exposure to only what each person needs, and it costs nothing to review.
Is multi-factor authentication enforced on every account with access to client data, not just email accounts?
– Gaps here are one of the most common ways for unauthorized access to occur.
Do former employees, contractors, or vendors still have active credentials to your systems?
– A quarterly access review identifies accounts that should have been disabled months ago.
Can you, right now, identify who has access to your document management system and why?
– If the answer takes more than a few minutes to find, that’s a sign that access isn’t being tracked closely enough.
Do you know which vendors or third parties can access your firm’s data and what they’re allowed to do with it?
– Vendor access is often overlooked until it becomes the source of a breach.
AI Corner
What Law Firms Need to Know Before Implementing AI
- Ask where data goes
- Disable default training settings
- Require no-training contractual commitment
- Verify encryption everywhere
- Confirm data storage location
- Demand data deletion rights
- Get commitments in writing
- Evaluate before signing
SST News & Events
- 250th Independence Day Celebration – 7/4
- Logan Booster Club Golf Outing – 7/6
- Aquinas Booster Club Golf Outing – 7/8
- SST Habitat for Humanity – 7/17
- Q3 Peer Group Meeting – 7/22
- Unscripted with SST Episode 20 – 7/31
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