Securing your workplace over the silly season

We often talk about keeping your business secure from cyber-attacks and scams but it’s just as important to keep your practice protected offline.

With the holiday period just around the corner, we're encouraging tax professionals to start thinking about how they'll keep their business premises and client information secure if they're looking to close their workplace over the holiday break.

We’ve put together a list (for you to check twice) of simple things tax professionals can do to protect their premises:

• Make sure your office is secure. This can be as simple as locking all doors and windows and testing any alarm systems you have in place to make sure they work.
• Safely secure all physical files. It only takes a few moments for thieves to photograph hard copies of your clients’ files so it’s crucial that all physical information is stored in locked storage units.
• Log out of all devices. It’s easier for thieves to steal privileged information when a device is already logged into the system.
• Securely store your devices. Keeping devices locked away and out of sight when they’re not being used is especially important if you plan on being away from your business premises for extended periods of time.

It's also important to make sure all devices are using the latest software. Cyber criminals use known weaknesses in systems or apps to hack into devices. Turn on automatic updatesExternal Link to take the guesswork out of updating work devices.

Tax professionals hold the keys to their clients’ identities so while these measures are aimed at protecting their workplace, they also contribute to keeping client information safe.

Our Security advice for tax professionals page is full of practical tips to make sure all client and business data stays secure, both online and offline.