Cybersecurity built for CPA firms
CPA firms face unique cybersecurity challenges including AICPA requirements, SOC 2 criteria, and IRS mandates. We deliver specialized protection that meets every compliance requirement.
CPA-specific threat landscape
Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Attackers impersonate partners, clients, or vendors to redirect wire transfers, steal credentials, or gain access to client portals.
Ransomware During Tax Season
Ransomware attacks spike during filing season when firms are most likely to pay ransoms to avoid missing deadlines.
Client Portal Takeover
Attackers target cloud-based accounting platforms and client portals to access financial data and tax records at scale.
Insider Threats & Staff Turnover
Departing employees with unrevoked access, shared credentials, and lack of offboarding procedures create significant risk.
AICPA & professional requirements
AICPA Code of Professional Conduct
Rule 301 requires confidentiality of client information with appropriate safeguards.
SOC 2 Trust Service Criteria
Security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy criteria for service organizations.
AICPA Cybersecurity Framework
Risk management framework for assessing and communicating cybersecurity posture to stakeholders.
Solutions for CPA firms
WISP & Compliance Documentation
Custom WISP development, security policies, and compliance documentation that satisfies IRS, AICPA, and FTC requirements.
Managed Detection & Response
Continuous monitoring and expert threat response to protect client data and firm operations around the clock.
Access Control & MFA
Multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, and secure remote access for your entire firm.
Staff Training & Phishing Simulation
Regular security training and simulated phishing campaigns to build a security-aware culture.
Cybersecurity that follows the accounting workflow
Accounting and CPA firms combine high-value identity data, financial records, payroll information, banking details, and deadline-driven work. Protection has to fit the engagement lifecycle: client intake, staff preparation, partner review, document exchange, filing, retention, and eventual disposal. Begin with the systems that hold client records and the accounts that can authorize payments, change vendor instructions, or export large data sets.
A workable program combines secure portals, strong authentication, managed endpoints, access review, protected backups, vendor oversight, and a tested incident plan. Seasonal staff and outside service providers need scoped access with clear start and end dates. Payment or bank-detail changes should be verified using a known channel rather than the contact information supplied in the request.
The written information security plan should describe the controls the firm actually operates. Bellator helps firms translate the inventory and risk assessment into prioritized safeguards, ownership, testing, and review evidence without forcing an enterprise process onto a smaller practice.
Priority implementation checklist
- Inventory client-data systems and financial-authority accounts
- Require MFA and managed protection on staff endpoints
- Use a secure portal for client documents
- Verify payment and bank-detail changes out of band
- Review seasonal and vendor access promptly
- Exercise incident communications and backup recovery
Authoritative starting points: IRS Publication 4557, IRS Publication 5708, and the FTC Safeguards Rule compliance guide.
From requirement to defensible practice
Turn IRS and FTC expectations into a WISP your office can follow
A useful compliance path makes the obligation clear, identifies the evidence to retain, and connects written policy to the safeguards used every day.
- Know what applies
- Document the evidence
- Make the safeguard operational
A defensible path
- 01
Confirm the requirement
Separate what is required from recommendations and vendor language.
- 02
Map it to your environment
Connect the rule to people, devices, data, vendors, and current procedures.
- 03
Close and document the gaps
Prioritize changes and keep evidence that the process is being followed.
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Keep exploring Tax security & WISP
Understand what tax professionals need to document, protect, and prepare before an IRS or FTC review.
- Common question: free WISP templateStart with a written information security planUse a practical WISP framework built around the safeguards tax practices need.
- Common question: IRS Publication 4557 requirementsRead the Publication 4557 guideSee how the IRS expects tax professionals to safeguard taxpayer data.
- Common question: IRS WISP requirementsReview the WISP requirementsWork through the required sections and the evidence your practice should retain.
- Common question: FTC Safeguards Rule checklistUse the FTC Safeguards checklistTranslate the rule into a clear list of security and documentation tasks.
- Common question: tax practice incident response planPrepare a tax-office incident planKnow who to contact, what to preserve, and how to respond to a client-data incident.