Why is Accounting Security Important?

Although it may seem self-evident, there are a few reasons why you should maintain appropriate cybersecurity at your company: a) Ensure the confidentiality of your client's information. Your clients place their trust in you as a professional, and the last thing we want is for your client's critical accounting data to be hacked and accessed by a hacker who then utilises their financial information for illegal purposes.
b) Ensure the data security of your company. Again, this is self-evident, but we want to make sure that your sensitive and confidential data is not just backed up to prevent loss, but also safeguarded against hackers and data breaches.
c) Safeguard the assets of your company or companies There are numerous types of cybersecurity risks, but some, such as phishing schemes, can result in your bank and credit card accounts being hacked and funds being stolen. Just take a look at the average cost of a cybersecurity hack on a business:

d) Protect your reputation Since we’re an industry built on trust, you’ll want to make sure that your reputational risk remains intact. Security issues that arise seriously threaten that trust and therefore the reputation around your accounting services.

Types of Cybersecurity Threats

There are many different kinds of cybersecurity threats, but let’s look at the most prevalent ones for accounting firms:

a) Phishing

This danger arises when you receive an email from someone posing as a legitimate source and requesting that you click a link and take some sort of action. Clicking the link or supplying data to the webpage that you click on can endanger your safe data, resulting in data breaches and giving the hacker access to your information.

b) Malware

Malware is the most common type of cyberattack. Here, malicious software installed on your computer can take control of it, damage your system and gather confidential data.

c) Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware attack where the attacks lock part of your system or data and threaten to delete or continue blocking the data unless a ransom is paid. This type of threat is no joke. Many companies are losing big money here.

d) Error by the user

User error is often overlooked, yet it is still a hazard in my opinion. When I first started my business, I made the error of deleting a large amount of client information. Oops… Fortunately, I was able to recover all of this information, although it took me a long time to locate and recover it all!

f) Other dangers

There are a slew of other risks to be aware of, including zero-day exploits, SQL injections, denial-of-service attacks, man-in-the-middle assaults, and more.

23 Security Measures for Your Firm

Below you’ll find the best tips to keep your accounting business protected and secure from cybersecurity threats. Tip 1: Get a Password Manager This is definitely one of the most simple security strategies to implement. At the very least, a password manager will enable you to securely save (and share) your password and user name with your team. This will be incredibly beneficial whether you have one or many employees.
Tip 2: Enforce Complex Passwords Each password should be at least 12 characters (the longer the better) and should have a mix of letters, numbers, cases, and symbols. A password manager can help you easily generate a complex password.
Tip 3: Use a VPN in Public Wi-Fi Areas Public WiFi networks (e.g., coffee shops, airports, etc.) are among the least secure networks available to businesses, making you vulnerable to cybersecurity risks and allowing them access to sensitive information such as passwords, social security numbers, bank accounts, and so on. This difficulty can be solved by joining a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Tip 4: Backup Your Files Accounting firms generate and save a great deal of personal and sensitive data for your company and clients. Consider all of the spreadsheets you've spent hours putting together. Make sure that this information is automatically backed up and updated on a daily basis. I use an app to back up my Google accounts on a daily basis, and I can use an app called Spanning to retrieve and restore anything I want from the past, which has saved my life on several occasions.
Tip 5: Backup Your Cloud Accounting Data Cloud accounting technology tools like Xero and Quickbooks Online are now used by the majority of businesses. Make sure you're backing up this data at least once a month, as these systems can go down at any time, even though it's rare. I prefer to have hard copies of all of this information.
Tip 6: Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on Everything If someone gets their hands on your passwords, MFA, or two-factor authentication, makes it more difficult for them to obtain access to your accounts. When you log in, you'll be asked to enter a 6-digit code obtained from an app such as Google Authenticator, which is only valid on the device you're using.
Tip 7: Purchase Dedicated Work Computers for Home You’ll want to segregate work usage on a computer from personal usage. Personal usage often leads to surfing around on less secure websites which can increase the chances of cybersecurity threats occurring and make it easier to identify for hackers.
Tip 8: Install Malware Scanners on All Computers We already saw that malware poses a lot of risk to your firm or your business. A malware scanner, like Malwarebytes, can help intercept these threats from occurring in your system.
Tip 9: Install Anti-Virus Software on All Computers Same as tip 8, you’ll want anti-virus software on all your small business machines. Kaspersky and Norton Antivirus are popular options.
Tip 10: Implement an Employee Offboarding Process Employees who are no longer employed should have their devices and access withdrawn as soon as possible. Establish a checklist to guarantee that all apps and the system are cleared of terminated employees or a terminated employee. Another fantastic feature of Practice Protect is the ability to quickly revoke access to a team member's app.
Tip 11: Provide Team Training on Security Your workforce should be well-versed in the types of security dangers that can arise in your company. If users come into touch with a hack, they should be trained upon onboarding with a refresher every quarter or so. Also, your training does not have to be the most technologically advanced thing ever. You can simply gather a few articles from the internet and create a few films on the issue to add to your knowledge base, which you can then share with your team.
Tip 12: Shred All Paper I’m hoping you’re still not using paper in your business, but if you are, make sure that you shred all documents before you toss them.
Tip 13: Limit App Permissions Not every member of your team should have access to or interaction with everything in your company, since this will only enhance the chances of a data breach or security issue. The majority of today's app services and systems allow you to set the appropriate permissions.
Tip 14: Develop Security Practices & Policies Your business should have policies and systems that outline your team’s responsibilities when it comes to data security and cybersecurity matters. Your security is only as strong as the weakest link, so ensuring that the team is not only trained but briefed on how they should be acting in relation to security becomes a critical matter.
Tip 15: Consider Regular Team Security Testing Tips 11 & 14 discuss training your team or employees on security and having the right policies in place. Some firms I know, like one of my Future Firm Accelerate members (shown below), apply regular security tests to ensure this training and policies are being followed. And if you search online, there are a variety of phishing simulations available, some even for free.
Tip 16: Enable Secure File Sharing with Clients Accounting businesses, let's face it, share a lot of sensitive or personal information that might be compromised if it falls into the wrong hands. And programme like Sync can let you share these files more securely by enforcing passwords, expiration dates, and other security features to prevent unauthorised access.
Tip 17: Reset Sensitive Passwords Regularly If you have some apps that contain extremely sensitive data, credentials, and business information, consider having a repeating task that makes you and your team reset your passwords regularly (ex: every quarter).
Tip 18: Consider a Separate Router at Home I previously stated that if your Wi-Fi network isn't safe, it can endanger your secure data. If you work from home and have children who don't understand cybersecurity accessing your Wi-Fi, your computer may be in jeopardy. That's why, in order to ensure physical security, having a second router at home dedicated solely to small business use (which keeps your kids off your network) would be a good idea.
Tip 19: Encrypt Your Hard Drive If you lose your device or if it’s stolen, an encrypted hard drive can prevent others to access your sensitive files.
Tip 20: Password Protect Sensitives Docs Sent to Clients Accountants send tax returns, financial statements, credentials, and all kinds of other sensitive accounting data and financial data by email. Password protect the files that you send.
Tip 21: Implement a Data Recovery Plan Unfortunately, data breaches or data loss will almost certainly occur in your accounting system at some point, so don't get too comfortable after all of your hard work. This is where you'll want to make sure you've set up the right security policies and a current data recovery strategy ahead of time so you can rapidly recover your financial data.
Tip 22: Check Security Measures for Apps You Use Reputable pieces of software should list their security practices on their website. Before signing up for any new software, make sure you’re comfortable with their practices.
Tip 23: If You Don’t Understand Security, Engage Someone Else Lastly, consider outsourcing security to a third party who really understands this stuff.