Cyber Security and Accounting: How Our Team Protects Data

In an age when nearly everything is online, it’s normal to have concerns about cybersecurity and accounting—especially when your company needs audited financial statements and records.

Accounting and auditing firms work hard to protect your data from malicious attacks. In this post, we’ll cover some of the most significant cybersecurity risks and explain the best practices for accounting and cybersecurity. With this post, you’ll better understand which questions you should ask your accounting partners about security before hiring them for your audits and accounting needs.

The Biggest Cybersecurity Risks in Accounting

Cybercriminals are always on the move, finding new ways to access data illegally. Unfortunately, cyberattacks are common. When cyberattacks happen, criminals can gain access to:

Account numbers
Banking information
Credit card numbers
Usernames and passwords
Personnel information, such as social security numbers and home addresses

Threats like phishing campaigns, ransomware, and data breaches can significantly impact financial reports and audits. If your company’s private information is compromised, it can lead to major issues with your lending partners and make it harder for you to conduct an audit accurately.

Why Companies Need a Cyber-Secure Audit Partner

Although your company likely already takes steps to ensure your digital information is safe, you should also verify that your auditing partners focus heavily on cybersecurity. Audit firms hold an obligation to ensure their clients’ data is safe, secure, and protected while in their hands.

At Assurance Dimensions, protecting your data is a top priority. Bennie Lewis, CPA, President, and Partner at Assurance Dimensions, said, “Protecting financial data is no longer optional—it’s essential. We take cybersecurity seriously, implementing industry best practices to safeguard sensitive client information and ensure compliance with evolving security standards.”

With this in mind, here are a few best practices you should consider before partnering with an audit firm. These best practices will help you understand if your firm adheres to strict cybersecurity and accounting standards.

1. Understand the Threats

Your accounting firm should be familiar with common threats like phishing and ransomware. Sometimes, these attacks are easy to spot and can be quickly verified before a data breach occurs. Ask your accounting team if they stay on top of the latest trends in cybersecurity threats. This will help you understand their commitment to ensuring your data’s privacy.

Internal mishaps, like accidentally sharing the wrong documents or misplacing essential data, can happen without appropriate training and can be a common threat. A qualified accounting firm will ensure employees are adequately trained to protect your information from all internal and external attacks.

2. Ensure Secure Software

With the appropriate software, a remote audit can be beneficial. However, not every accounting software is as secure as it could be. An accounting firm that understands the impact of cybersecurity and accounting will do its due diligence to find and use the best, most secure software.

At Assurance Dimensions, we use Suralink for secure file exchanges. Suralink is a secure client portal that ensures controlled access to financial documents and audit records. With this extra level of security, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing your data is protected against cyberattacks.

3. Use End-to-End Encrypted Email Communication

For sensitive information, like your company’s bank statements or employee benefit plan information, it’s essential that your accounting partners use end-to-end encrypted email communication. This information in the wrong hands can harm your company, making email encryption necessary.

End-to-end email communication helps protect sensitive data by encrypting emails to prevent unauthorized access and ensure secure correspondence.

How Assurance Dimensions Protects Client Data

Cybersecurity and accounting are two critical topics to consider for any company needing accounting assistance or an audit. How your firm handles your data can make or break your business. This is why it’s essential to partner with a firm that understands the importance of privacy and data protection, and why they must do their part to ensure your data is safe.

At Assurance Dimensions, we are committed to secure accounting practices. We rely on Suralink for secure document sharing, end-to-end encryption for email communications, and ongoing cybersecurity training and risk assessment to help us keep client data safe and secure.