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Bar governors discuss providing association-managed email accounts to reduce cyber risk
Summary
Members of the Bar Association Board of Governors raised cybersecurity concerns during a governors roundtable and discussed whether the association should provide governors with professionally managed email accounts on the Bar Association’s server to reduce risk from personal webmail accounts.
During a governors roundtable, several members urged the Bar Association to offer governors email accounts on the association’s exchange server to reduce cybersecurity risks from personal webmail. Governor Fay, who introduced the topic, said he currently uses a Yahoo webmail account and described it as insufficient for handling sensitive Bar correspondence, referencing cybersecurity training he had received through the Washington State Bar Association. “I think it would be highly advisable that members of the board of governors be given an email address through the Bar Association's exchange server so that emails that are sent both in and out by governors would be safe,” Fay said.
The topic drew brief discussion of practical controls insurers and employers often require. Governor Villeneuve noted that some cyber insurance policies “generally require every member of an association to actually have very controlled email access,” and said he was surprised personal email addresses had been permitted for governors. Governor Ahern and others raised dual‑factor authentication and firm email filtering as security measures; Governor Ahern said many larger organizations require dual authentication. Executive Director Nevett said the association had piloted managed accounts “a few years ago” with at least one governor but that the pilot had not been adopted; Nevett offered to check again with IT staff to see whether the association could now offer managed accounts and said making such an account mandatory would be a board decision.
Speakers framed the proposal as both a personal security and collective‑risk question: as Governor Fay put it, “if you're sending from a Yahoo account, and someone hacks into you, and it doesn't go through an adult exchange server, well, you're going to infect me.” No formal policy change was proposed during the roundtable; Nevett said the association IT staff would be asked to explore options and the board would need to approve any mandatory requirement.
