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Accountants Dodge Data Breaches

4th May 2021
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Just a brief scan of recent headlines shows that data breaches are a big problem for businesses and their customers. Facebook, the Scottish Borders Council, the NHS, and People’s Energy are just a few of the companies that have found themselves affected by data breaches in recent months, but there are many more that don’t appear in the news. As more data goes online and internet scams become more prevalent, it’s vital to get a handle on cybersecurity. Three ways to lower your chances of getting hit by a data breach include staying up to date with current phishing schemes, making sure data access is tailored to the needs of each employee, and using services that keep data secure like Ordo, the secure payments service. 

Go phish

According to a report by GetApp phishing is becoming more common and more effective with 80% of workers surveyed saying they had received phishing emails and 58% saying someone in their company had clicked on a malicious link in a phishing email. Phishing emails trick users into to thinking they are dealing with a legitimate company or person. By clicking a spoofed link, the victim of phishing unwittingly provides access to company data. Often scammers send phishing emails to everyone in a company because it only takes one person clicking the link to make the scam successful. 

Although email software often catches and quarantines phishing emails, sometimes these emails do make it to your in box. In order to spot them, make sure you and your colleagues are well versed in the hallmarks of phishing emails.

  1. Look at the email address – Scammers may have the name of a legitimate company as the sender and they may even have inserted the company’s logo into the email, but often if you look at the email address you’ll see it’s from a public domain. A genuine email would almost certainly come from the company’s own domain.
  2. Suspicious links or attachments – In order to get access to information, phishing emails always contain a link or attachment that when clicked or opened will provide access to data. If you get an attachment from someone – even someone you know – make sure to verify that it’s legitimate before opening it. 
  3. A sense of urgency – Scammers know that you’re more likely to click a link or download a strange attachment if you don’t give yourself time to think things through. Because of this, they make their email seem urgent by claiming an invoice hasn’t been paid or an account is in arrears. If you receive an unexpected urgent email, don’t react right away. Give yourself time to scrutinize its contents before proceeding.

Limit data access

The GetApp report also reveals that a data breach is four times more likely to happen if employees have full data access. Whether a data breach is caused by something malicious like a phishing attack or an accident, if an employee has access to all the data then the results could be disastrous. The report shows that Accounting is one of the industries most targeted by scammers with 63% of survey respondents from accounting firms having experienced ransomware attacks.  Make sure to tailor data access to meet the needs of specific employees instead of giving total access to everyone. This could limit the harm done by a data breach.

Choose your apps wisely

Finally, choose your software and third-party apps wisely. Use tools that make security a priority, like Ordo the secure payments service. With Ordo, sensitive banking data is not on display. It stays between the customer and the bank, exactly where it needs to be. It’s completely secure and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and listed on the official UK's Open Banking listing store. Ordo is also the official payments Open Banking partner with Sage and is available in the Sage marketplace, along with also being fully integrated with Xero and Quickbooks too. Arrange a demonstration today and find out how Ordo can make your payments more secure.