William Fry LLP ("William Fry") is one of Ireland’s most prominent law firms, with more than 500 employees and a long-standing reputation for legal excellence. In a sector where client trust is critical and digital communication is constant, cybersecurity is treated as a core business requirement.

Recognising the growing need for visibility across its public-facing attack surface, the IT team selected Red Sift to support its evolving security strategy.

William Fry recognised that foundational risks—like email impersonation and brand abuse—were on the rise and posed a direct threat to client trust. But beyond that, the team lacked visibility across the firm’s broader digital estate, including third-party systems and external infrastructure not directly under their control.

“We needed to make sure our own configurations were sound,” explained Martin Tierney, IT Infrastructure Administrator, “but just as importantly, we had to know when a vendor’s setup wasn’t meeting our security standards. Without that visibility, there’s no way to manage the risk.”

Audit expectations were also shifting—it was no longer enough to protect what was inside the network. The team needed to demonstrate that they were actively monitoring and managing risk across their external footprint.

“Red Sift protects the domains of 4 of the 5 magic circle law firms in the UK as well as international law firms,” said Michael Devitt, IT Director. “Their track record in the legal sector made them the obvious choice of cybersecurity vendor for William Fry.”

The first step in William Fry’s journey with Red Sift was securing its domains against impersonation. With Red Sift OnDMARC, the team was able to quickly implement strong email authentication using a platform that combined user-friendly dashboards with robust automation.

One feature in particular made an immediate impact. “We’d always struggled with SPF—it was a nightmare to manage manually,” said Martin. “Dynamic SPF is a game changer. It removes the complexity around the SPF lookup limit and makes it easy to stay compliant, even as new vendors come on board.”

Alongside OnDMARC, the team adopted Red Sift Brand Trust to strengthen their defence against lookalike and cousin domains. The platform provides continuous monitoring and risk-based prioritisation, giving the team clear visibility into which domains pose a genuine threat and need attention.

“For firms in the legal industry, lookalike domain and brand attacks can be costly both from a financial and reputational perspective,” said Michael. “With Brand Trust, we enhanced our ability to identify lookalike domain attacks and, if required, take them down before they can be used to launch phishing attacks.”

As William Fry’s security programme matured, the team looked to expand its visibility beyond domain and brand protection. Red Sift ASM (Attack Surface Management) gave them a clear, consolidated view of their public-facing infrastructure—from DNS configurations to exposed services—through the eyes of an external observer.

“Red Sift ASM shows us what an attacker would see from the outside and has helped us catch misconfigurations,” said Martin. “It’s particularly useful when reviewing third-party dependencies, where a vendor’s misstep could expose us to vulnerabilities beyond our control. We’re able to act faster and resolve issues before they become a problem.”

In one case, the platform flagged several security header misconfigurations on William Fry’s public website, which is managed by a third-party vendor. ASM surfaced issues related to HTTP Strict Transport Security and outdated XSS protection settings, along with remediation guidance. With support from Red Sift and cooperation from the vendor, the team was able to correct the setup and align it with best practices. The ability to detect and resolve these types of configuration gaps externally reinforced ASM’s value not just for visibility, but for enabling action across the firm’s extended digital footprint.

As part of a broader effort to improve visibility into external systems, William Fry ran a proof of concept with Red Sift Certificates to identify unmanaged or expiring TLS certificates, particularly those issued by third parties.

With all four Red Sift products in place, William Fry can now see and secure risks that previously would have gone undetected—from email impersonation and lookalike domains to misconfigurations and expiring certificates across third-party infrastructure. What once took hours of investigation and manual follow-up now takes minutes.

“Red Sift is more than just a cybersecurity vendor—they're a true partner,” said Michael. “Their team has been responsive, open to feedback, and committed to enhancing the products based on real-world needs. We’d happily recommend them to any organisation looking to strengthen its security posture.”

Beyond the technology, the Red Sift team has become a trusted extension of their security operation. “The team is incredibly supportive and knowledgeable—they take the time to explain technical concepts clearly, which I can then relay to my own team or external vendors,” said Martin. “That kind of support saves us time and means we can move faster when something needs to be addressed.”

With integrated visibility and a responsive partner by their side, William Fry is now equipped to manage cyber risk proactively.