GC Requires Outside Law Firms to Encrypt Communications

Law firms seeking to protect client and firm communications from outside hackers should consider one simple form of security.

Peter Beshar, general counsel of Marsh & McLennan Companies, says he has required many of his outside law firms to use what’s known as Transport Layer Security.

Transport Layer Security, or TLS, is a form of encryption that establishes what Beshar called “an electronic handshake” between email senders and recipients, which verifies the domains of the two companies communicating with each other.

In doing so, TLS prevents any unauthorized senders or recipients from entering and intercepting communication—protecting “data in transit” from ...