Major Challenges that Affect Accounting

Cybercrime is the major challenge facing the accounting profession today. Accounting information, for instance, credit card information, bank account data, and passwords, have become a hot target for hackers due to their high value. The threat of cybercrime has significantly increased during the pandemic after the increase in remote working by employees. In 2020, numerous accounting practices reported that IT vendors and employers rushed to give remote workers access without fully comprehending how to properly implement and safeguard it (Salman, 2020). This scenario resulted in an increase in the level of cybercrime faced by accounting practices of all sizes. There has been a three hundred percent increment in the number of cyberattacks (Salman, 2020). Hackers have grown to be more sophisticated with their methods to steal vital data from CPA firms. The cybercriminal activities which have become common include unauthorized access to networks, destruction of backups, ransomware attacks, and encryption of data. Accountants have to contend with the loss of sensitive data belong to their clients. In this scenario, the clients and the CPA firms are likely to be exposed to significant losses. 

The accounting profession is combating cybercrime through computer security. CPA firms are using malware protection software installed on their computer devices. They also regularly update the software and consult with IT employees to ensure firewalls are working. There is also a significant focus on backing up accounting data. CPA firms choose to use either a mix of cloud-based services and traditional hard copies or only a cloud-based service to back up their data. In the accounting profession, there is also an emphasis on staying vigilant. Accountants are being encouraged to remain vigilant at all times by never opening emails from suspicious sources. I think the current tactics used to combat cybercrime are insufficient since the criminals are becoming cleverer and are using more sophisticated methods of stealing data. 

Reference 

Salman, G. (2020).  The rise of cybercrime in the accounting profession continues . MICPA. https://micpa.org/stay-informed/news/2020/08/25/the-rise-of-cybercrime-in-the-accounting-profession-continues .