How to Evaluate Security and Data Privacy in Process Serving Practices

Key Takeaways

• Third-party risk is rising fast — the share of data breaches involving third parties reached 30% in 2025, double the year prior, making vendor security a direct extension of your firm’s own risk exposure
• Look for encryption at rest and in transit — AES-256 bit encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit are the current gold standards
• Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based user permissions so system access is limited to only what each user needs
• Confirm audit trails and activity logs exist, creating a tamper-proof record of every user and system action
• Ask about compliance certifications — SOC 2 Type 2, NIST CSF 2.0, GDPR, and CCPA are the key frameworks to check for, along with independent audits
• Watch for red flags: weak password policies, no encryption, limited user controls, or a lack of security documentation are signs to walk away

In 2025, the share of data breaches involving third parties rose to 30%, double the year prior.¹ With cybercriminals increasingly targeting law firms, it’s not just critical to maintain internal security practices but also to evaluate those of any external partners who handle your clients’ data. 

Process serving data security refers to the technical and administrative safeguards a provider uses to protect client information and legal documents throughout the service process — from encryption and access controls to audit logging and regulatory compliance. 

Selecting the right process serving partner for your firm starts with the consideration of efficiency, geographic reach, and depth of experience with complex cases, but that’s not where it ends. Come prepared to scrutinize their process serving data security, including the standards, controls, and audit trails that keep your clients’ information and legal documents protected.

Why Security Matters in Process Serving

A process serving partner’s activities, demeanor, and adherence to security and data protection practices reflect on your firm. Working with servers that lack the infrastructure and expertise to implement compliance and cybersecurity best practices can expose your firm to costly process serving mistakes and negative outcomes. Consider: 

• Client confidentiality
• Court document protection
• Regulatory compliance 
• Cybersecurity threats facing legal professionals

Essential Security Practices Every Process Serving Partner Should Have

Logging in to a cloud-based system from any device and seeing the exact status of a service order, along with time-stamped events and scheduled next steps, eliminates the hassle and wait times of updates via phone calls and emails. On the other hand, it opens up a different challenge: ensuring the security of process serving at every stage. 

Encryption at Rest and In Transit

Data encryption can be employed at rest, while the document is stored in any location, and while data is actively moving between endpoints: over email, via file upload, or through a client portal. The gold standards for encryption are: 

• AES-256 bit encryption at rest²
• TLS 1.3 in transit

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Rather than a single username and password, accessing your vendor’s system should require MFA. This can incorporate: 

• Authenticator apps
• Biometrics
• One-time SMS and email codes
• Push notifications
• Hardware security keys/devices

Role-Based User Permissions

Instead of granting full file system access to anyone who needs any level of document or system access, role-based permissions first establish different levels and types of access, then assign users to those roles. This limits data access to only those who need it, when they need it, to help mitigate risk. 

Secure Cloud Storage

Cloud storage that qualifies as secure integrates current practices on end-to-end encryption, authentication, and permissions. Additionally, it may offer: 

• Zero-knowledge architecture – Only the client can view their files (not the vendor)
• Immutability – File deletion/modification prevention (ransomware protection)
• Single sign-on (SSO) – Streamlines user access and removal

Audit Trails and Activity Logs

The vendor system should allow for granular audit trails and activity logs that provide transparency and create a tamper-proof “black box” of user and system actions. 

Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Provider

Bring your questions and be ready to take notes as you vet vendor security. Ask: 

How is client data stored?

Ask whether data is encrypted at rest (AES-256 bit is the current standard), where it’s physically or virtually housed, and who has access to the underlying storage systems.

Where are servers located, and is client data backed up to multiple locations?

Geographic redundancy protects against data loss from a single point of failure — such as a regional outage or disaster — so ask whether backups are stored in a separate location from primary servers.

How often are backups performed?

More frequent backups (daily or continuous, rather than weekly) reduce the amount of data that could be lost in an outage or breach.

What is the crisis plan for a server outage or a data breach?

A mature provider should have a documented incident response plan, including client notification timelines and steps to restore service continuity.

What certifications does the company maintain, and are they independently audited?

Look for recognized frameworks like SOC 2 Type 2, NIST CSF 2.0, GDPR, or CCPA compliance, verified by a third-party auditor rather than self-attested.

If you don’t have cybersecurity familiarity on your team, consider a more formal vetting approach, such as a Third Party Service Inherent Risk Rating (TPSIRR) — an internal scoring method for ranking vendor risk based on the sensitivity of data they access — or a Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) Questionnaire, an industry-standard vendor security assessment template that covers areas like data handling, access control, and incident response.³

Compliance Standards to Look For

One of the best ways to demonstrate adherence to cybersecurity and data privacy standards is to adopt and safeguard voluntary compliance frameworks alongside mandated regulations. Ask potential partners about their adherence to: 

Red Flags That Signal Poor Data Security

In addition to what a company claims about its adoption of security standards or frameworks, look for red flags that can signal breakdowns or contradictions. These include: 

• Weak password security practices
• No encryption
• Limited user controls
• Lack of security documentation

How U.S. Legal Support Protects Sensitive Legal Data

For nearly 30 years, U.S. Legal Support has provided comprehensive litigation support services (process service, court reporting, and record retrieval) to legal firms and teams of all sizes and practice areas, from process serving for small firms to full support for enterprise legal departments. We leverage technology with care and adhere to strict cybersecurity and data privacy standards. Through our secure Client Portal, we offer online record ordering, document delivery and management, and realtime tracking and status updates.

Want to learn more about our process service offerings or place an order? Contact our team today.

Sources: 

1. Verizon Business. 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report. https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
2. Decryption Digest. Data Encryption at Rest and in Transit: A Practitioner’s Guide. https://www.decryptiondigest.com/blog/data-encryption-at-rest-in-transit-guide
3. Shared Assessments. Types of Vendor Risk and How to Mitigate Them. https://sharedassessments.org/blog/types-of-vendor-risk-and-mitigation/

Julie Shepherd

Julie Shepherd is the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Sales Operations at U.S. Legal Support where she leads innovative marketing initiatives. With a proven track record in the legal industry, Julie previously served at Abacus Data Systems (now Caret Legal) where she played a pivotal role in providing cutting-edge technology platforms and services to legal professionals nationwide.