Tag: Tips for accounting firms

6 Ways to Avoid Cyber Risk for Accountants

Infrastructure and Security in Remote Staffing for Accounting Firms

Quite a majority of small and mid-sized accounting business firms in the US face critical challenges in implementing and maintaining safety and security for all the confidential business data of all their clients. With the advent of inter-connectivity through mediums other than computers, all such business data is far more vulnerable to attacks and breaches from the cyber-world from unknown locations and identities than ever before. Today, there are more incidences of data theft, identity theft, corporate sabotage, etc. by hackers and attackers actively looking for lapses in digital security such as loopholes, backdoor vulnerabilities, leniency of people when creating and using passwords among many other such issues.

Accountants today need to be more aware and proactive in planning, deploying, and upgrading all implemented hardware and software in their information management systems. Intercepting, Planning, and Managing cyber-security risks is not just limited to having the most expensive and powerful firewall or security software for blocking all attempts of hacking your data. It begins with having the right hardware and software, Ironclad rules and standards for digital as well as real world, backed by stringent controlling and monitoring measures and their enforcement, and periodical revision, updating and upgrading of all implemented rules and systems thereof. Let us see, the means and measures necessary to follow and implement for having a reliable information systems in your accounting firm.

How to Improve Your Cyber Security?

To begin with, we need to understand the fundamentals of how digital information resides in your desktops, servers, or even cloud storage spaces, and how anyone unauthorized can access it. All digital data resides on some form of storage; it could be in a hard disk in your laptop or desktop, or either device is configured to store data on a local data server or on a remote, online data storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. With each option, there is some form of user login using ID and passwords.

Login Credentials: Passwords and Authentication

This is the first step to address, which goes a long way in ensuring your data stays safe and secure, and accessible only by you and those persons you have granted authority for accessing it. Just as a chain is as strong as its weakest link, all the aforementioned systems are secure and reliable only as much as the credentials of those users granted access to it. The stronger the passwords users have created, the lesser the odds of any hacker gaining access to the data. Consider it the first step in implementing cyber security in your accounting firm.

Secure Networks: Intrusion & Defenses

To ensure that no data leaks from your office it is important to block unauthorized access to the networks and computer systems within. It is advisable to have a technical IT personnel or at least a consultant for assistance related to network security.

Controlled Internet Access

As much as internet is a source of information, it is also a major source of malware or virus attacks and eventually, threats to data security. “No internet – no threat” won’t work in today’s era. So what’s best is to limit the access to only the websites that are known and trusted. Look for the little https:// prefix inside the URLs you are about to browse, they indicate secure websites. Websites without this secure domain are not necessarily malware carriers but accessing web with precaution will safeguard you.

Updated Firewalls and Antiviruses

While many users often ignore it, but these software will ensure the well-rounded safety and security of your valued computer. Good anti-virus software will keep unwelcome intrusions locked out of your computer. Firewalls keep malware from coming in via network connections. Antivirus software not only helps keep malware out, it also guards against attack from any malware that may have somehow made its way into your computer via network, USB port, email, infected image, etc. Firewall rules can (and should) be updated routinely.

Cyber Security Assessment

For any existing firm, initially you can have digital security experts analyze your current systems and all the possible vulnerabilities that can lead to data breach. Having this report, the experts will also provide you with the necessary measures and solutions, based on severity and urgency, which need to be adopted and implemented in a given time period. You should probably not skip any options from the list, if possible, and go ahead with fixing all the issues and problems right away!

Train Employees about Security Principles:

Along with above stringent requirements, you should also enforce certain rules such as:

  • No writing down of User IDs and passwords on physical (paper) or digital mediums
  • Enforce never sharing abovementioned information with anyone, including any seniors or even the owners of the business firm
  • Passwords should not contain or be based / derived / formed using any personal information such as birth or anniversary dates of self or family members
  • Changing passwords frequently, yet inconsistently in terms of days, password length, and difficulty of the password characters used
  • There should be no pattern or set times, for updating or changing passwords

Form rules and groups detailing who can access what data as not everyone should be allowed to access all data

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If Going Paperless is Your firm’s New Year Objective

Any technology driven organization is primarily dependent on computing devices with a host of peripherals and software options, which complement the basic functions of a business. Digital medium has reduced our dependencies on a lot of unnecessary clutter, usually seen in an organization. Right from having ‘tiny post it’ notes to small hand written memos, which were used for office communication about a decade ago, to having important documents or files now available in digital form, received in email instantly! There’s a gradual but inevitable shift to a paperless with each passing day. Increasing business firms are now going the paperless way. Environmental concerns aside, having a paperless office has its own benefits over old school methodologies. Moreover, relying on less paper means, reduced consumables expenses for your organization. Furthermore, reduced space requirements for using and storing paper documents translate into lesser floor space requirements for any firm.

The Myth

However, paperless doesn’t mean any organization ‘Will not need’ any paper-based documents or ‘can operate without’ any paper in their office premises. That’s the primary myth associated with the term — “paperless office”. Any office needs paper for daily functioning of important tasks and chores. What needs to be understood here is, no matter the nature of your organization, there are some basic functions or business processes, which cannot do without any paperwork. For example, accounting, inventory, legal, logistics, etc. All these need the very basis of paperwork because of the scope of the work they address and manage. In all these business functions, the need for proofs and records necessitates the use of paper-based documents at every step, and every day. For such purposes and functions, no business can ever avoid using any papers at all!

Physical to Digital

However, there are many other opportunities where you can cut down on or eliminate using any papers at all. For starters, once you have all paperwork signed and filed away, you can using document scanners to convert the physical paper form of all such important documents into digital copies of their original physical versions. This goes a long way, as digital copies aren’t as affected by physical environmental changes as physical versions of documents are easily affected over time. Moreover, physical suffer damage due to mishandling and incorrect storage, often due to repeated retrieval procedures. It makes more sense to have documents such as bills, receipts, contracts and business cards digitally scanned and converted into editable documents using the latest OCR technology.

Storage & Security

It makes easier to store and retrieve digital copies in a logical format much convenient whilst increasing the security of any and all such confidential documents. Furthermore, you can restrict the access to each document in that repository to select employees in your organization. Moreover, there can always be a track of when anyone accessed it. This ensures that there isn’t any unauthorized access to even a single document without permission from the management hierarchy. Furthermore, in lines with digitization of all physical documents, you can and rather should pursue requesting paperless documents such as statements, reports, etc. from financial institutions to begin with. This makes provisions beforehand without having to convert physical copies into digital ones. It serves multiple purposes such as reducing the time taken in transmission of documents, safety & security of handling and storage, and restricted access permissions for only those entitled access to such documents.

Cloud Storage

Alternatively, you can go for cloud storage solutions for document management. Although digitization has far more advantages over maintaining physical copies of your documents, it has a few concerns that need to be addressed. Since you are storing your documents on a local computer or file server, there could be hardware failure, or security lapses if the protocols weren’t set stringent enough. Moreover, it is tedious and time-consuming process to send/receive any digital documents, frequently. These are rare but not entirely avoidable issues, which can be solved with structured planning and implementation of policies.

However, to mitigate such issues, Cloud Storage technologies have evolved a lot in the past few years, becoming cost-efficient along with being conveniently accessible from anywhere, including mobile devices! It can be said that cloud technology is the future, given its increased reliability, security, accessibility, and economical costs for setting up and using it daily. There are scores of options available nowadays, free and paid with various plans suitable as per your requirements.

Taking Notes

Consecutively, cloud technologies have crossed the bridge, going beyond offering storage services. For many business firms, taking notes, memos, To-Do or Tasks lists, etc. are daily occurrences on the work floor. In order to have a paperless, these activities would also need their digital counterparts just like storage options. From having Windows built-in Notepad and Sticky Notes, to dedicated Notes-taking applications such as EverNote, Wunderlist, Google Keep, etc. are some of the few popular options leading the pack today.

End Note:

Considering the above issues and solutions, it makes more than necessary to begin digitization of physical documents, and implementing digital replacements of traditional avenues of daily business operations, which required use of paper. Furthermore, migrating to cloud technology would increase the efficiency as well as grant greater security to your digital documents from day one.

Read more: CYBER SECURITY FOR ACCOUNTING FIRMS