Security is a BIG DEAL

I used to work for a network security provider, so maybe I think about security a little more than some people. I believe that it is so important to ensure that access to the war room is controlled as much as possible. I know that trial teams can’t have a security guard standing at the door all the time checking identification, but the team needs to be aware of keeping the space secure.

From a physical security standpoint, it means that the last person to leave the workspace needs to pull the door closed and test it to make sure that it doesn’t open with a hard pull. Sometimes there will be a lot of people if you’re in a hotel, and their curiosity will get the best of them. It can look like a parade of people walking by and looking in to see what’s going on in there. It is really an interesting thing to the hotel guests to look at what they think of as a conference room and see a fully functioning war room. It’s like a train wreck that they can’t look away from.

There is also a data security aspect that needs to be taken into account. I’ll say right now that I try my best to steer trial teams away from having wireless access points for the war room. I would be lying if I said I have never set them up though. Wireless makes the physical segregation of the network much less clear cut, and opens up the possibility of people trying to get connected that wouldn’t otherwise even know the separate network is there. This is part of the most important part of building out a war room network from a security standpoint….

Your network needs to be segregated from the hotel network. You should have a firewall (and you’ll probably be also using a VPN) at the front of that network and access to switches should not be available to the public. What this implies is that you have to plan in advance and get either a separate internet connection or you have to work with the hotel IT group to VLAN a segment of their network for only your use.

It is a Worst-Case Scenario for you to have to share your internet access with all of the guests at the hotel. I shudder at the thought. It’s ridiculous slow, to begin with. This is especially true in the evenings when you get back from the courtroom and really need to have good access, because guests are checking in to their rooms and getting online all at the same time. Netflix streaming, skype, you name it – those things are all competing with you. Also, the curious types in the hotel (I want to say hackers, but maybe just people with enough knowledge to be dangerous…..) can “browse” the network and start trying to log on to computers, print to printers, sniff packets if you aren’t using encrypted communication – you get the idea. Please don’t be that law firm.

So the moral of this story is, plan ahead, get some internet access you don’t have to share and have someone help you set it up so that it’s secure. If you don’t know how to ensure these things are set up properly, contact me, I would love to help you get it done right. Don’t leave USB drives laying around, keep the doors closed and locked when you aren’t working in the space. There is a lot of expensive equipment in there! Set up some shred boxes and contract with a company to come and collect all of your shred materials at the end, or even on a regular basis if the trial is a long one.

~Leslie