Why is Email not Secure for the Accounting Industry?

Many people have been conned, defrauded, or had their identities stolen from phishing emails due to ignorance and possibly a lack of information about email vulnerability. And this is a result of sending confidential information over email. Importantly, information from the accounting industry is primarily the target of these cyberpunks.

Sending information via email should be regulated for industries that deal with sensitive financial data, such as the accounting industry. Remember that this is an email messaging platform that was designed by computer-assisted professionals and did not fall from the skies, meaning invasion could occur.

The email was never meant to be a secure means for exchanging sensitive data by default. Read on to learn more about why email is not secure for the accountancy practice.

What You Should Know About Sending Messages on Email

Even though there are records of millions of official information passing through emails every day, it does not make it a secure means for passing sensitive data especially as we start to prepare for tax season. Email is an electronic counterpart of a letter, with the added benefit of saving time and flexibility. Following meetings, interviews, or appointments, companies use it to send professional follow-up emails.

Additionally, organizations can utilize email to communicate with huge groups of employees, customers, and future customers. Newsletters, in which mailing list subscribers are delivered particular, promoted content from a firm, are typically sent via email.

As you can see from the explanation above, email is a helpful tool for communicating; yet, some sensitive messages should not be sent via email. Messages that could jeopardize one's identity should not pass through this channel. Even if an email has its level of security, you might wish to discuss encryption.

Encryption helps to safeguard the body of communications. But it needs additional technical knowledge and must be set up in advance by both the sender and the receiver. Mail systems can delete if it fails to understand it, leaving the message in transit vulnerable.

You may hear things like "don't send personal data via unencrypted email." It's not a safe way to transfer sensitive information and could leave you vulnerable to data theft. Because encryption is a two-way process that may be readily undone, it is not appropriate for account industries to send data over email.

The truth is that transferring information over email is not a secure method. As a result, you should never send sensitive data or information in an email, whether as an attachment or in the text.

Why is it not Secure to Send Sensitive Client Documentation Through Email?

Data hacking reports and spam emails are proof that your sensitive information can be invaded if it piques a hacker's interest. You have no idea how many networks or servers an email will pass through on its way to the recipient or who has access to them when you send it.

Of course, no hacker will sneak into emails that do not include important financial or personally identifiable information. The accounting industry is their primary target, and because those are the people they want to snare, accounting firms must be cautious about what they transmit via email.

A hacker who succeeds in hijacking an email account can transmit malware or obtain access to a client's information by impersonating the victim. You could lose vital data, pay hefty fines, or experience downtime depending on the email attack.

What Could Happen if Things Go Wrong?

Identity theft and bank account or credit card fraud can occur as a result of a hacked email, putting you and your email connections in danger.

Fraudsters use stolen email accounts to send their victims tricky messages seeking money or personal information that could make their financial link vulnerable. They also have a way of getting their victims to click a link that installs malware, spyware, or a virus on the victim's computer.

Your email information can be used to change passwords on other accounts, gain access to credit information, or even cancel accounts.

What to Tell Your Clients if They Try to Send You Information Through Email

When sending communications by email, it is preferable to avoid doing so if the material is sensitive. So you could simply tell them it's not sanitary in terms of security, even if the data is sensitive.

Instead, you can adopt CoraCloud. CoraCloud offers cloud collaboration for accounting and tax professionals. You can securely send sensitive information between your staff and clients with the peace of mind that all information is safeguarded by bank-level security. Step up from consumer grade services with CoraCloud’s 256-bit encryption and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA). All data in CoraCloud is 100% encrypted so only you and your clients can access documents stored in the secure CoraCloud Portal. Keep out all prying eyes and pesky web crawlers. To learn more about CoraCloud, click here! 

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