Page 139 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2023

Protecting Accounting Firms from Cyberattacks

Cybersecurity Practices Must Be A Top Priority For Firms This Busy Season

By Alan Hartwell, Chief Technology Officer at IRIS Software Group

Financial service firms are a top target for cybercriminals given the highly sensitive client data they house,
as demonstrated by the 268 financial services data breaches in 2022 alone. The latest was revealed by
Brian Tankersley, former CPA Practice Advisor tech editor, on LinkedIn when hackers tried to request
Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFIN) from unsuspecting users.

Cybercriminals are in no way slowing down, and we can expect attacks to continue increasing in
frequency and sophistication. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts a ransomware attack will occur every 2
seconds by 2031 and cost victims $265 billion annually.

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