Law firms make great targets for cybercriminals. You hold sensitive client data, you move money through trust accounts, and most firms don’t invest in security the way banks or healthcare systems do. Attackers know this.

The threats facing Iowa law firms aren’t theoretical. They’re active, targeted, and hitting firms of every size. Here are five of the most common attacks we see, and what you can do about each one.

1. Business email compromise targeting settlement funds

This is the one that should scare you, because the financial damage is immediate and often unrecoverable.

An attacker gains access to an attorney’s email account, usually through a phished password, and then sits quietly. They monitor conversations for weeks, sometimes months, watching for a transaction: a closing, a settlement, a wire transfer. At exactly the right moment, they send a convincing email with updated wire instructions. It comes from the attorney’s actual account, or a domain that’s one letter off. The client or title company sends funds to the attacker’s account. By the time anyone notices, the money is gone.

Law firms are especially exposed here because moving large sums through trust accounts is just part of the job. Settlement wire instructions sent by email are standard practice. Clients trust their attorney’s email without question. One successful attack can mean six or seven figures lost, plus a malpractice claim.

The fix is straightforward: enable multi-factor authentication on every email account, no exceptions. Establish a firm-wide policy that wire instructions are always confirmed by phone using a known number, never by replying to the email. Deploy email security tools that detect account compromise and flag suspicious forwarding rules. And train everyone to recognize BEC patterns, especially around closings.

2. Ransomware

Ransomware attacks against law firms have increased significantly over the past few years, and mid-size firms are squarely in the crosshairs. Attackers know that a firm with active case deadlines and client obligations can’t afford to be down for days, which makes you more likely to pay.

The attack usually starts with a phishing email, a compromised remote access tool, or an unpatched vulnerability. The attacker gets into your network and deploys malware that encrypts your files and systems. You get a ransom demand, usually in cryptocurrency. Even if you pay, recovery isn’t guaranteed, and you still face notification obligations if client data was exposed.

For Iowa firms specifically, the state’s data breach notification law requires you to notify affected individuals and the Iowa Attorney General if personal information is compromised. A ransomware attack that touches client files triggers both legal notification requirements and potential bar disciplinary issues.

The most effective defense is boring: keep all systems patched and up to date. Maintain verified, tested backups that are isolated from your main network (backups connected to the same system as your production data will get encrypted too). Use endpoint detection and response tools, not just basic antivirus. And have an incident response plan before you need one. Know who you’re calling, what you’re doing, and how you’re communicating with clients if it happens.

3. Credential theft and phishing

Phishing is still the most common way attackers get in. And the phishing emails targeting law firms have gotten much harder to spot.

You receive an email that looks like it’s from Microsoft, a court e-filing system, a client, or opposing counsel. It includes a link to a login page that looks legitimate. You enter your credentials, and the attacker now has your username and password. From there, they can access your email, your files, your case management system, anything those credentials unlock.

What’s changed recently is quality. AI-generated phishing emails don’t have the obvious grammatical errors that used to be a giveaway. Attackers are also increasingly using “spear phishing,” where the email is tailored to a specific attorney or matter using information scraped from court filings, firm websites, or LinkedIn.

Multi-factor authentication is the single best defense here. Even if credentials are stolen, MFA stops the attacker from using them. Beyond that: implement conditional access policies that restrict logins from unusual locations or devices, run regular phishing simulations so your team practices spotting attacks, and use email filtering that catches known phishing domains before they hit the inbox.

4. Insider threats from poor access controls

Not every security incident comes from outside the firm. Some of the most damaging data exposure happens because of how access is managed internally.

This usually isn’t malicious. It’s a departing attorney who still has access to files two weeks after leaving. It’s a paralegal who can see every matter in the system because permissions were never scoped. It’s an office manager with admin access to everything because someone needed a quick fix three years ago and nobody rolled it back.

The risk is that sensitive client data gets exposed, either to someone inside the firm who shouldn’t see it, or to an external attacker who compromises what should have been a low-privilege account but turns out to have access to everything.

Law firms struggle with this because they’re busy. Access control changes get deferred. People move between practice groups and accumulate permissions. When IT is reactive instead of proactive, nobody audits who can access what until something goes wrong.

The fix: implement least-privilege access so every user has access to only what they need for their current role. Review permissions at least quarterly and whenever someone changes roles or leaves. Disable accounts immediately upon departure with a documented offboarding checklist. And use audit logging so you can see who accessed what and when, especially for sensitive client files and financial systems.

5. Supply chain attacks through legal tech vendors

Your firm doesn’t operate in isolation. You rely on case management software, document management systems, e-discovery platforms, and cloud storage providers. Each one of those vendors is a potential way in.

Instead of attacking your firm directly, an attacker compromises one of your vendors. They exploit a vulnerability in the vendor’s software, gain access to the vendor’s systems, and from there, reach your data or use the vendor’s trusted connection to your environment to deploy malware. The MOVEit breach is a recent high-profile example, but smaller vendors with fewer security resources are increasingly being targeted too.

Legal tech is a specialized market with a lot of small vendors, and not all of them have mature security programs. If your case management system or document management platform is compromised, the attacker potentially has access to your entire client base.

Evaluate the security practices of your key vendors. Do they have SOC 2 compliance? Do they conduct regular penetration testing? How do they handle security incidents? Limit the access vendors have to your systems. Monitor their security disclosures and patch advisories, and when a vendor announces a vulnerability, act on it immediately. Include cybersecurity requirements in your vendor contracts and actually review them.

The common thread

Every one of these threats comes back to the same handful of fundamentals: MFA, access reviews, tested backups, vendor evaluation, and staff training. None of it is exotic. It’s the blocking and tackling of IT security.

The hard part is doing it consistently, not just setting it up once and assuming it’s handled. That’s where having an IT partner who actually understands law firm security, not just generic small-business IT, makes a real difference.

Concerned about your firm’s security posture? Artech Solutions provides managed IT security for Iowa law firms, including threat monitoring, access management, backup verification, and incident response planning. Contact us for a conversation.