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CPA firms have a great deal of responsibility to not only perform the services we have been hired to provide, but also to protect the data entrusted to us from cyberattacks. Unfortunately, as long as data is housed on our computers, we will be under attack.

From phishing emails, to bad actors probing and poking us to find weaknesses to exploit, a cyberwar is raging. What are you doing to protect yourself?

There are countless ways to field a defense, but there are five critical areas of which CPA firms need to be mindful to enhance their cybersecurity:

• Two-factor authentication, also called multifactor authentication
• Secure management of passwords
• Secure transmission and receiving of sensitive data
• Use of a least-privilege model to secure data
• Collaboration between consulting teams and the internal tech and security teams

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an added layer of protection for user logins. With 2FA in place, a physical token, short message service message, cell phone app, fingerprint, etc., is required in addition to a password to access a system or service.