How data rooms can protect you against social media security threats

Apr 29, 2011 - by Randy Rosenberg

The growth of social media sites is enabling businesses to engage customers and extend their reach online, and yet the wealth of information available gives hackers the opportunity to create ever more intelligent and more effective attacks.  Popular social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are being used by hackers to identify the targets with access to the most valuable information, such as a person working on a merger and acquisition in the energy sector, a clinical trial in biotech, or multi-million dollar real estate transactions.

Once a target person involved in the deal or transaction is identified, the hacker learns everything they can about that person to determine a strategy that will successfully infect the target’s computer.  Their goal is to insert malware that will steal passwords and gain further access to information across internal networks – often going undetected for months.  Hackers often apply their research to impersonate someone that the target knows and then contact the target via e-mail, fooling the target with a personalized message that appears authentic, and infects that person with malware.

Five ways your firm can avoid malware threats

Apr 8, 2011 - by Randy Rosenberg

The Globe and Mail reported on April 6 2011 that four top law firms had fallen victim to cyber attacks originating from China:  Major law firms fall victim to cyber attacks

The attacks were aimed at stealing sensitive data related to high value mergers and acquisition transactions.  Hackers used email to pose as a partner working on the deal, and were able to embed attachments that contained malware, successfully infecting dozens of computers and comprising several sensitive documents.   To defend against this growing threat, many firms have chosen to take measures such as storing documents in secure third party facilities, and are realizing the benefits of secure online file sharing, known as cloud computing.

Sophisticated cloud computing solutions limit the opportunity for hackers or infected users to penetrate security layers and access confidential data.   Authorized end-users can view, upload, and change documents, but they are not able to run programs on the server - making malware based attacks impossible.

Firmex Enhancements: Beyond Performance

Mar 25, 2010 - by Randy Rosenberg

As developers we constantly focus our attention on the performance of our Firmex platform. While this concentration will always be an important aspect of what we do, it is imperative to direct our attention to exactly what we are developing and how it is being used.  Since launching the new Firmex service-based architecture, our web application has experienced huge gains in speed and performance, paving the way for us to develop new ways to streamline workflow for our users.

Over the next few months, we will be making Firmex simpler for our clients to administer their virtual datarooms/workspaces and interact throughout the application. Our tools will better integrate into daily workflow and reduce the work it takes to use our platform.

From 3 Weeks to 30 Seconds: Wrapping up a Deal Just got a lot Easier

Jun 29, 2009 - by Randy Rosenberg

Firmex is pleased to announce new enhanced functions that allow executed documents to be published directly from the deal room to external media in seconds. “After closing a deal, parties, often exhausted, tend to move on to other deals. Thus leaving the responsible party scrambling to pick up loose ends and create the closing binders” says Chris Gaffney, Director Client Services at Firmex. Our clients' version and post executed documents online to a shared closing agenda. The closing set is already organized when the final documents are signed. With a click of a button, hundreds of indexed final forms are neatly published for offline or online distribution.

Moreover, copies of the deal can be located online. Our clients can authorize Firmex to provide a complimentary secure online library of documents for 3rd parties, who can publish indexed deal documentation to DVD as needed.

This level of organization and efficiency is more cost effective and helps turn around work faster.. “In this economic environment, both law firms and corporate clients appreciate this type of efficient deal infrastructure” says Joel Lessem, Firmex CEO.

About Firmex: Firmex™ Develops a secure, collaborative, and branded online environment for conducting due diligence, reviewing transaction drafts and closing deals. Firmex licenses its virtual data room technology to organizations that seek to enhance and streamline their transactional processes.