With cyberattacks happening more frequently than ever before, protecting your business and client data is a huge obligation.
Cyberattacks target all industries and company sizes, but smaller companies tend to be the easiest to hack—as many don’t have proper processes in place to keep data secure.
In this blog, we’ll share:
- Cybersecurity facts to help you understand what you’re up against.
- Best practices for keeping your data safe.
- How a cloud document management system helps.
Data security facts
Cybercrime is any crime that takes place online—or primarily online. It can range from security breaches to personal information theft. Cybercriminals often commit crimes by targeting computer networks or devices. Here are some facts about cybersecurity:
- Every 11 seconds, a company is a victim of a ransomware attack. (Cybersecurity Ventures)
- 95% of breaches are caused by human error. (World Economic Forum)
- $9.44 million is the 2022 average cost of a data breach in the United States. (IBM)
- $5.05 million is the 2022 average cost of a data breach in the UK. (IBM)
- 22 billion records were exposed in 2021 breaches. (RiskBased Security)
- Over 70% of US tax-filing adults are concerned about data breaches when filing income taxes online. (PC Mag Tax Survey)
- In 2020, malware increased by 358% and ransomware by 435% compared to 2019. (Help Net Security)
How to keep your data safe
- Follow best practices. Staying updated on the latest recommendations and risks is critical. You should also regularly educate your staff so they can confidently recognize cyberattacks and ransomware attempts. Your company should be trained—and required—to follow best practices around document management, network protection, password creation and usage, and more.
- Actively mitigate risks. Review the flow of information throughout its journey in your business—from the moment your clients begin sharing information with you to when you’ve finished the project. It’s also important to identify the hardware and software you use, where it’s located, who has access to it and what vulnerabilities are specific to each. This can help you determine if there are any weaknesses in how you manage and store personal data and help you take actionable steps to mitigate the risks.
- Secure everything in the cloud. In the cloud, your data is encrypted—which means it’s scrambled and unreadable during transit and after. You can also control who accesses each piece of data. Approved users must verify their identity via multifactor authentication to access it. When you use a secure online document management system, you can also see exactly what’s happening—like who created, accessed, downloaded and deleted documents. And automatic data backups mean you won’t lose anything to natural disasters, power failures or human error.
- Collaborate safely online. It’s risky to share documents with sensitive information—such as financial or personal details—through emails. Use a client portal that lets you safely share files with staff and clients. It should give authorized users access to the documents whenever they need them…and from wherever they’re located.
Learn how to keep online data safe with cloud document management
When you combine SmartVault Accounting Pro with Rightworks, you have everything you need to run your accounting practice in the cloud—securely, easily and efficiently. SmartVault seamlessly adapts to the workflows you already have, integrating with Lacerte®, ProSeries®, DocuSign and more. This allows you to easily share critical documents with your team, vendors and clients—anywhere, anytime.
To learn more about how SmartVault can help you achieve smoother tax seasons, enhanced collaboration and seamless integration—all with the protection that comes with being in the Rightworks cloud—get started online today.