Top-class security at Selmer law firm

How Netsecurity helps with 24/7 cybersecurity for Selmer

A long-term and valuable collaboration

Advokatfirmaet Selmer is one of Norway's leading law firms, established in 1985, with offices in Oslo and Stavanger. The company offers legal services within business law, and has a core within real estate, energy, transaction, dispute and technology. Today, Selmer advises a large number of companies in Norway and abroad, as well as the public sector, and is known for its high professional expertise and ability to handle complex legal challenges.

The law firm has been a customer of Netsecurity since 2017, and in 2021 they entered into an agreement for Security Operations Center and IRT (Incident Response Team) services. This has made Advokatfirmaet Selmer one of Netsecurity's most important security monitoring customers.

Selmer

In 2020, Selmer made a strategic decision to modernize its digital infrastructure. They carried out an extensive cloud journey and decommissioned local servers. As a natural part of this process, they considered how they could best safeguard their security, and the choice quickly fell on an external SOC solution. After a thorough evaluation of several suppliers, they chose Netsecurity, where price and quality of service were decisive factors.

Full security monitoring and proactive threat management

- "It's important to realize that the people behind the attacks you may be exposed to have an enormous motivation," says Petter Iversen. This is precisely why he believes they can never talk enough about data security - and why they have put it high on the agenda.

Petter Iversen, Technical Manager IT at Selmer

Today, Netsecurity's delivery to Selmer consists of:

MDR (Managed Detection and Response) of identities, where Netsecurity monitors and handles security incidents related to misuse of user access.
MDR of endpoints, which involves monitoring activity on clients and servers with the possibility of immediate response to attacks.
Phishing Response service, which ensures that phishing emails are analyzed and handled quickly and efficiently.
Microsoft Sentinel operation and monitoring, where log data is analyzed to detect suspicious activities, with continuous updating of detection rules.
Incident Response service, where certified incident handlers can take action on critical incidents.
Consulting and threat assessment, where Selmer gains insight into the current threat situation and proactive measures to improve security.

Selmer has learned that even the most technologically competent employees can be exposed to phishing attacks. They conducted a stress test where employees received simulated phishing emails, and the results showed that no one is immune to such threats. According to Petter Iversen at Selmer, raising awareness is crucial:

- "If one person falls for a phishing attack, it can give access to sensitive information. "We need to make sure that everyone is well trained to recognize and report such threats.

Zero Trust

Selmer has adopted a Zero Trust approach, where nothing is trusted without verification. They've also found that threat actors are leveraging AI to generate emails that look completely genuine, making it even harder to detect fraud attempts.

- "So far, we haven't experienced anyone trying to get hold of specific information, but we have experienced someone pretending to be a member of management. They have approached some of the younger employees directly and taken advantage of the respect you have for superiors when you're new in a job," explains Iversen. "So perhaps my most important job is not to scare my colleagues about what they might be exposed to, but rather to work hard to reassure them that they can come to me if they experience anything suspicious!

So far, the really big AI-based actions have failed to materialize:

- "But that's by far the biggest risk for us. So it's crucial that we have a security apparatus that continuously monitors and responds to threats."

Iversen particularly highlights Netsecurity's IRT team as an important source of security:

- "I find Netsecurity to be very skilled and tidy. One important step they've taken that I believe will help them succeed in the fight against cybercrime is how they charge if something actually happens. They have a policy where the first few hours of IRT services are not invoiced, which lowers the threshold for reporting potential incidents. At least it doesn't cost anything to check!

Selmer has repeatedly tested Netsecurity's response capacity by simulating attacks, and each time they have been very satisfied with the handling. With an increasingly complex threat landscape, working with Netsecurity is an important part of their strategy to protect their clients and maintain high security in the legal industry.

I find Netsecurity to be very skilled and tidy. One important step they've taken that I believe leads to their success in the fight against cybercrime is how they charge if something actually happens. They have a policy where the first few hours of IRT services are not invoiced, which lowers the threshold for reporting potential incidents. At least it doesn't cost anything to check!

Petter Iversen

Technical responsible IT, Selmer