Encryption, Privacy and the Dark Side of the Internet was written by Duane Croft, a Norman, Oklahoma lawyer with an engineering background. This Oklahoma Bar Journal article covers encryption in depth, while still being readable for the lawyer with only basic knowledge on the topic. Certainly today's lawyer does need to understand the basics of encryption, even if he or she does not care to know the mechanics.

I hesitate to keep labeling things "must reading" but I think you will learn quite a bit from this piece and especially his comments on “scary-level” encryption. So check it out: Download Encryption Privacy and Dark Side of Internet.Croft.OklaBarJ (PDF File)

I also have some companion resources for you. Not Just For Paranoids: 4 Reasons To Encrypt Your Digital Life is a nice article from MakeUseOf.com that does a fine job of pointing out why you would want to encrypt files. It also has some links to additional basic encryption articles.

Encryption Made Simple for Lawyers was published late last fall in GPSOLO magazine. It was written by David G. Ries and John W. Simek. These two colleagues are quite the experts in this field.

Hopefully this trio of resources will give readers some comprehensive information about this subject, which is becoming more significant every day, especially for professionals that deal with confidential, private or privileged information in digital files.