Your email account is the crown jewels
It can reset almost everything else and it is where clients send documents they should probably not send by email. If exactly one account gets multi-factor authentication today, make it that one.
Busy season is a capacity and continuity problem
Everything gets used harder at once, and that is when undersized equipment and untested backups reveal themselves. The work to survive the season happens months before it, not during.
Small practices are targeted precisely because they are small
Nobody picks you out. Automated attacks sweep everything and land where multi-factor authentication is missing. That is genuinely the main determinant of whether it happens to you.
Seasonal staff need accounts that get closed
Temporary help during the season means accounts created quickly and almost never removed afterwards. A written joiner and leaver checklist fixes it in an afternoon.
Common questions
- Clients email us documents with personal details. Is that a problem?
- It is common and it is not ideal. A simple portal or secure link that clients will actually use is the practical fix, and picking one they will use matters more than picking the strictest one.
- Is our accounting software backed up?
- We test it, including hosted systems, because hosted rarely means backed up the way people assume.
- Can you help before busy season rather than during it?
- That is the right time to do it. Anything structural should be done well before the season, and during it we stay out of the way unless something breaks.
- What happens if we get hit with ransomware?
- It depends entirely on whether you have a backup the attacker could not reach. That is the single question worth preparing for, and it is answerable in advance.
- Do we need cyber insurance?
- Most firms holding this kind of data should look at it, and insurers will ask what controls you have. The controls usually cost less than the difference in premium.
- Can staff work from home securely?
- Yes. It is mostly the account and the device rather than the location, which is good news because both are manageable.
Where we do this
These are the towns where this kind of business actually clusters. We work across the whole 30 mile area, so if you are somewhere else on the list, call and ask.
Start with a phone call
You describe what is annoying you. Fifteen minutes, no discovery-call ritual.
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