Protect Your Information, Protect Your Business!
It is a necessary role for accountancy firms or any financial institution for that matter, to help clients increase their security posture and cyber security measures. There is a relentless need to protect businesses against online risks and threats. In recent years, there have been large-scale breaches that have lead to financial damage due to cyber incidents. It is important to get to grips with how to best protect your information, so that you can avoid operational disruption and unwanted losses.
What is cyber security?
Cyber security is the use of technologies and platforms which protect online systems, networks and sensitive data from cyber attacks. It aims to reduce the number of threats on a system and protect information from unauthorised exploitation.
There is a growing importance of cyber to accountancy in general; as it is a profession that manages exceptionally sensitive client information and is becoming more digitalised. A lot of attacks are motivates by financial incentives which makes accounting firms a high-risk target for hackers. Systems online are susceptible to hackers so it is crucial to invest in cyber security measures to counteract the risks.
What defense systems are there? What can you do?
One in three businesses are still being attacked by cyber threats despite the progression in the number of preventative measures put in place. Faced with a multitude of endless security risks, businesses need to work towards implementing the best practices which use technical countermeasures. Some examples include:
- Spread awareness of security issues throughout your employee base
- A thorough understanding of your IT infrastructure so you are aware of the greatest risks for your company- who might target your organisation? What might they want to steal?
- Invest in effective firewalls, threat detection and anti-virus technologies that are regularly updated
- Make sure you and you staff use strong passwords when logging into business software systems
- Be aware of phishing emails- domains that replicate those that are similar to original company names and usher you to transfer personal credentials
Planning how to respond to cyber security incidents is just as important as trying to prevent them. There are continuous loopholes which demand for operation resilience from businesses. The main focus should be to protect your information, and how you recover from potential damages.
How we can help
One of our key roles as accountants is to highlight business risks. Here at Carrington Blake Accountancy, we ensure our clients’ sensitive information is protected and secured at all time so you never have to worry about your finances being under threat. Contact us today for further information on the services we offer or any queries you have!
