Protecting Sensitive Data: Email Hacking Prevention Tips for CPAs

Imagine a world without email. We’ll wait. 

Email is a necessary evil for all organizations. Whether your firm thrives on email or despises it, it is a reality of operating in the modern corporate world.

With the convenience and prevalence of email use across organizations comes inherent risks. For CPAs, the risks have high stakes. With sensitive personal and financial information flowing regularly through CPA firms, locking down email use for maximum security is vital.

The good news? We’ve got your back. This guide will provide context for email hacking risks and top tips for CPAs to prevent email hacking. 

Let’s dive in.

What is Email Hacking?

Like its name, email hacking refers to cyber criminals using email to gain unauthorized access to your data. But there’s more to it than that. How does it happen? What are they after? Why do hackers often specifically target CPA firms when it comes to compromising email accounts?

As a CPA firm, you are the keepers of significant  sensitive information. Many times, information is purposely or inadvertently shared via email. Email hackers prey on employees, making what is sometimes just a one-time, simple mistake. Your mistake, their gain.

In email hacking, hackers gain unauthorized access to an email account or its correspondence and use the access for several possible malicious purposes, including:

• Impersonation: Hackers can use sensitive information from an email account to impersonate the account owner and extort them or their contacts.
• Phishing: Hackers can send emails that look like they're from a trusted source to trick people into giving away personal information or money.
• Malware: Hackers can install viruses or malware on an account to access the inbox. They can also use the account to send malware-infected emails to the account owner's contacts.
• Account takeover: Hackers can use an email account to access other online accounts that are linked to it, such as bank accounts or social media accounts

5 Tips for CPAs to Prevent Email Hacking

Keeping email hackers out of sensitive systems follows similar strategies to keeping hackers out of anything. Whether ransomware, email hacking, or phishing, keeping your information safe requires strategy and consistency. If you are a CPA, follow these ten tips to help prevent email hacking within your firm.

1. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA can prevent over 95% of bulk phishing attempts and over 75% of targeted attacks.
2. Implement controls to prevent risky sign-ins: Implement controls that restrict which countries, devices, and even approved time frames for account sign-ins to prevent bad actors from signing into your account.
3. Implement email security products: Implement security products that target impersonators, viruses, and other common attack angles before they hit your Microsoft 365 inbox. 
4. Manage your email domain’s reputation and block insecure emailers: Properly implemented and managed technologies like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM help tell the world how to verify you really sent emails from your domain (vs. bad actors). You should also be blocking incoming emails that fail these checks. 
5. Train your staff on how to spot a phishing attack: Implement a phishing simulation platform to test your staff. 

All of PK Tech’s plans include all the above.

Securing Email Accounts at CPA Firms

While email is, in fact, just one way that hackers infiltrate organizations – it’s a big one. In a comprehensive and proactive cybersecurity strategy, it’s always wise to focus on the most significant and most common points of entry. Email is undoubtedly one of them.

With a long history of working with CPA firms in the Greater Phoenix Area, we understand what it takes to protect a CPA firm. Email accounts present a vulnerability for all firms that must be addressed at the employee level.

Is your firm ready to fortify your email accounts to prevent email hacking? Let’s chat. Schedule a free 15-minute call with a member of our team. 

New: Did you know all CPA firms are subject to the FTC Safeguard rule? Check out dedicated page for this, along with our FTC Safeguard Readiness Quiz.