TLF Attorney Marc Roman Interviewed by Glens Falls Business Journal on Cybersecurity Issues for Businesses as More Employees Work from Home

GLENS FALLS, NY | Part of owning a small business is having a good understanding of the laws that effect it over time. In recent years, understanding codes and protocols is more important than ever.

Law firms and human resource consulting agencies can be important resources to help small business owners. They can even ultimately protect their livelihood.

Attorney Marc Roman at The Towne Law Firm, P.C., provides a variety of cybersecurity, data protection, privacy and information technology services to clients. He said small businesses have recently developed a keen awareness of multiple exposures across a variety of risk vectors that demand their attention and remediation efforts.

“From a Human Resources perspective, small businesses continue to seek control over COVID-related staff costs, including legal liability, by implementing policies and biometric mechanisms that are often more rigorous than commercial regulatory guidance requires. Certain SMBs have also implemented policies that allow for staff separation where management is uncomfortable with either risk ambiguities and/or persistent staff resistance to certain control protocols,” said Roman.

Roman also said from an IT perspective, many businesses are moving to cost-effective cloud-based platforms and products in an attempt to shift vulnerability risk management and maintenance considerations to third-party providers like Microsoft Office 365. The additional use of third-party vendors to provide outsourced IT technical support, management, and maintenance resources often leads to the establishment and management of new small business third-party vendor management programs.

“Small business risk concerns have been amplified over the last several years by macro-scale unpredictability in both the economic landscape and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Roman.

Roman said access to adequate legal support is always a concern, especially against a backdrop of changing regulatory landscapes.

“While the costs incurred for legal services may often be budgeted for, the defense against regulatory actions or the handling of civil claims by small businesses remains persistently unpredictable, and tends to also invoke non-economic, unforecastable costs such as evidentiary assessment and artifact collection efforts, and increased time investments from trusted management or critical staff,” said Roman.

Article has been edited and condensed.

Learn more about TLF’s technology and cybersecurity practice and find out how to keep your business PROTECTED. TLF has the experienced team you need to help resolve your technology law concerns. As technology advances in both the private and governmental sectors, new technology effects all business enterprises. All business owners are vulnerable no matter their industry. Cybersecurity is a prevailing issue as businesses grapple with challenges to security as it relates to email, unprotected personal devices, unencrypted data, and even firewalls.

Source: Glens Falls Business Journal, written by Jennifer Farnsworth