As everybody who has ever seen a TV program featuring lawyers knows, attorney-client privilege means that clients have the right to keep the communication between them and their lawyers confidential. Lawyers know not to divulge sensitive information publicly, but what if they get hacked?
More legal professionals are turning to military-grade encryption to safeguard their professional communications and their practice’s reputation. Let’s take a closer look at what these phones are like.
Military-Grade Encryption
In the way that locks on a door can be weak or strong, not everything called “encryption” or even “end-to-end encryption” offers the same level of protection. Military-grade encryption is inspired by the world’s leading cryptographers, as custom protocols like ChatMail Advanced Messaging and Parsing Protocol (CAMP) encompass PGP and Elliptical Curve Cryptography.
Industry leaders can automatically identify internal and external users, defaulting to Curve25519 and PGP encryption, respectively. This level of security can’t be offered by free communication platforms that offer “end-to-end encryption” while also selling data to advertisers and third parties.
Encryption is Easy for Day to Day Use
Historically, phones that offered encryption strong enough to keep out sophisticated hackers were too cumbersome for everyday non-tech users. Today, anyone can understand how to make encrypted phone calls without any technical expertise.
Adding a user to your contact list is simple when there’s an automatic identity verification system, eliminating the need for complex notaries or manually verifying complex keys. Group chat and even anonymous group chat can be arranged quickly and effortlessly.
Technical features like backing up or accessing your data are easy to use and private. All it takes to restore your contacts and notebook is a simple one-step process. The best platforms also give you full control over your encryption keys and generate new ones in seconds.
Just like anyone can drive a car even if they don’t know how a combustion engine works, lawyers don’t need to understand the ins and outs of encryption to enjoy its security.
Secondary Protection
Even the best encryption in the world won’t keep your data private if your phone gets lost or stolen. Confidentiality requires a secondary suite of security features to complement encryption.
For example, a Tamper Proofing feature lets lawyers create an optional duress password, so the phone instantly and automatically erases sensitive information if an unauthorized party tries to enter the wrong password too many times.
Are you sending messages or pictures that only need to be seen briefly? Set such content to self-destruct, and it will be destroyed after a set time, even if there’s no data connection. The content set to self-destruct can’t be forwarded, favorited, or saved on either device.
A Notebook Lock Screen with a custom pin gives two-factor security. Lawyers can’t get the security or peace of mind they need without these extra security features, no matter how strong the phone’s encryption may be.
Lawyers are ethically and legally bound to guarantee confidentiality to their clients, and in a more fundamental sense, it’s harder to trust a professional who is responsible for a leak. Today, many lawyers turn to platforms with military-grade encryption and secondary security features to end the possibility of a breach before it arises.
