INDIA LEGAL FIRMS AVOID REVEALING DATA THEFTLegal firms avoid revealing data theft- The Economic TimesDo Law firms in India face data theft? If so what are the legal remedies for the firms?
IK

Data theft is a universal problem that impacts any legal entity with valuable electronic data residing in its computer systems. Law firms too have large volumes of valuable and confidential data of clients in their systems and it is a fact that they do face instances of data theft.

Most of these cases are not reported. The reason behind isn?t hard to find. Law firms deal with confidential data of clients and are often under oath of confidentiality towards their clients.

Reporting such instances are likely to bring about negative media publicity, and so it is unlikely for law firms to report data theft because this would directly impact their relationship with their clients. This is the reason why we do not find law firms reporting cases of data theft in our country.

However, there has been one case of a prominent law firm reporting data breach by its junior lawyers, and the criminal proceedings of the case are still pending. It will be interesting to see as to how the trial moves forward.

Technically speaking, law firms indeed have the remedy of reporting the matter. A case of hacking or data theft can be registered under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000 .

However, data theft can also be made a ground for seeking damages by way of compensation to the tune of Rs1 crore against the persons who have committed data theft. However, these remedies have not yet been adopted by law firms.

I believe that as more and more serious instances of data theft emerge in law firms, they will be inclined to avail of these legal remedies after taking their clients into confidence.