Accounting Firms are Finding Their IT Overtaxed
With tax season quickly reaching its crescendo, accountants and CPAs face increased threats to their data security. Your clients’ financial information is too good for a cybercriminal to pass up. Now is the time to prepare yourself to fight a cyberattack. Learn how managed IT can support your business in a variety of ways.
Is Your Data Secure for Tax Season?
Cybercriminals are well aware of the stress most accountants and CPAs face during tax season. They also know that with stress comes mistakes and opportunities for them to attack. The reality is most businesses, regardless of size or industry, usually have cybersecurity protocols that are underpowered. Cybercriminals know this and wait for predictable moments of distraction to target a company. What’s more predictable than tax season, and what’s a better target than a CPA or accountant?
Why are Accountants and CPAs Targets?
The answer should be obvious: these industries are most likely to have access to the type of data cybercriminals are most interested in: financial. However, it is also important to remember that with the ascendance of ransomware, the cybercriminal’s MO has evolved. These days cybercriminals are more likely to hold your accounting firm’s data/computers hostage than to try and steal your client’s data to resell on the dark web.
As you can imagine, a cybercriminal would be able to exert considerable pressure on your business if they gained control and locked you out of your system around April 15th, rendering you unable to file your client’s tax returns electronically. How much damage would your business suffer, and how much would you be willing to pay to regain access to your data?
Finally, even if you’re a smaller business, chances are you are linked to larger organizations. This connection makes cybercriminals treat you as the weakest link and will use you as a way to gain access to the other businesses you are connected to. It should be apparent that losing control of your data could well cause enough damage that your business may not be able to recover.
How to Protects Your Data
The most effective way to protect the data your accounting firm is responsible for, is with a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan. A ransomware attack can only hold your data hostage if you cannot regain control of it. Your backup is going to be the solution to this problem. A data backup and recovery solution in the form of a business continuity strategy should be a prominent part of the foundation of any well-designed managed IT plan, regardless of your business or industry.
We also manage and maintain your network to prevent threats from coming in.
Why Managed IT for Accountants Is Essential For Business Growth
While it’s evident that managed IT can benefit your firm’s data protection, it can do so much more. Due to the wide range of solutions provided, managed IT should be considered an essential service for any business. Due to their services’ nature and the data they are responsible for, accountants and CPAs can benefit from the full suite of managed IT.
While during tax season, it makes sense for accountants and CPAs to request that their managed service providers (MSP) focus on cybersecurity (however, cybersecurity is a 24/7, 365 issue), the benefits of partnering with an MSP stretches beyond cybersecurity protection. Managed IT can provide your organization with increased protectivity, stability, collaboration, and communications, all of which can benefit your company’s bottom line.
Some benefits managed IT brings to your accounting firm include:
- 24/7 Monitoring – We watch your network to identify and prevent incoming threats.
- Patches and Security Updates – By having us keep your software updated, your team can work without interruption.
- Less Downtime – Solving problems preventatively will reduce the amount of time that users can’t get their work done.
Are You Ready to Embrace Managed IT?
Managed IT’s wide range of services allow your firm to leverage your technology into a resource and not a liability. Point North Networks, Inc., can help you accomplish this with the solutions that your firm needs to boost productivity while developing best IT practices to stop your technology from holding back your growth. A managed IT partner allows you to stop worrying about your technology.
Call 651-234-0895 today to schedule a free IT consultation, and learn how our personalized, proactive IT support for small and medium-sized businesses can be of service.
Three IT Practices that Can Drive Your Business’ Success
When looking to improve your business via the use of technology, it helps to keep a few basic tenets in mind. Let’s review some strategies to help reinforce their importance.
Consistently Utilize Uniform Tools and Processes
Picture it this way—while it is perfectly possible to transfer data from Microsoft’s solution suite to Google Workplace (and vice versa), it just isn’t nearly as convenient for your employees to do so… and since this transfer is entirely in their hands, there is a high potential for user error and other issues to slip by.
The same goes for how your internal data is handled. Without established storage conventions or an established storage space shared amongst your team, things are bound to go missing or be inaccessible to others who need it. By establishing and enforcing standard operating processes, you better enable your team members to stay on the same page and working cohesively.
Prioritize Security
Your team members all need to have a well-developed appreciation for the importance of data security, particularly when using the tools discussed above. From password requirements to multi-factor authentication to phishing awareness and more, you need to make a concerted effort to keep focus on the consequences a data breach could have and how the security safeguards you have in place can help protect the business and its data.
Numerous other tools and solutions exist that allow you to lock down your business more effectively. However, your team members also need to buy into these ideas. Encourage these practices and policies by performing regular evaluations of your team and giving them feedback based on their responses.
Promote Mobile Solutions
Finally, mobility is an important part of a business’ processes, so the capability to bring your work around with you needs to be promoted throughout your operations. This will help your business to be more flexible, responsive, and productive wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Point North Networks, Inc. can provide the tools needed to enable all of these practices. To find out more about what we can do for you, reach out to us at 651-234-0895.
