3. Work Virus

A few lessons from IT class popped in to my head today at work.  To begin, my work computer was infected with a virus.  I am not sure where the virus came from, but part of my job is monitoring web content for our clients, so the number of sources is infinite. Viruses like spyware are no doubt a mammoth security concern for law firms as the majority of the documents stored in firm databases are confidential.  Once the virus was discovered, a member of the IT department hauled-off my old computer and replaced it with a new one.  I am not sure what the cost of a new computer is to the firm, but obviously price was no issue.  This occurrence made me wonder what specific threat the virus posed to the firm.  Could the intruder actually break the firewalls and other security gates guarding our data?  Could the virus collect information that can be later used in phishing attempts to trick employees into releasing sensitive company passwords?  I have heard of such happenings before.  The IT department must have their hands full.    

The other lesson that came to mind is that 20-40% of all spreadsheets contain incorrect or incomplete data.  This statistic has plague my every work day since I learned of it.  As an intern, I spend a large portion of my time at work compiling spreadsheets. Many of the reports I create are used by firm partners and other higher-ups in to make decisions on prospective clients.  As such, if my data is wrong, an attorney may be pitching a client on false pretenses.  With this in mind, I began brainstorming various preventative measures I could use to avoid entering incorrect data.  Unfortunately, I could not think of any timely alternatives to what I already do to insure that my data is correct.  Right now I use "copy-paste" and spell-check to avoid spelling errors, and of course, a thorough visual review to insure that the data cells are organized in to the correct columns and rows.  What else is there?