Accounting & tax firms
CPA firms, tax preparers, bookkeepers, and outsourced CFOs carrying taxpayer data through busy season.
IT & cybersecurity for accounting, tax, financial, insurance & engineering firms
Your clients trust you with the numbers. Make sure the network deserves it.
You'd never sign off on a return or a drawing you hadn't checked. Most firms have never had anyone check the systems that hold their client files. Overwatch Technology is the IT and security team for professional firms that can't afford a breach, or a bad week at deadline.
One call, then a written findings memo. Yours to keep either way.
Review notes · Firm 12Busy season
- Client returns / statements
- Sent as email attachments
- Written security plan
- Template, never filled in
- Departed staff accounts
- 3 still active
- Payment change requests
- Approved by email
- MFA on email
- In place
- Backup restore test
- Never done
Typical first review: 5 of 6 open items
Who we work with
Built for firms that run on client trust
Small to mid-size firms, usually 10 to 100 people, often with more than one office and no IT department of their own.
Financial advisors & insurance agencies
Practices holding account numbers, policies, and personal financial records that regulators and carriers ask about.
Engineering & architecture
Firms with drawings, bids, and project files that have to be there on submittal day, shared safely with partners.
Consulting & other advisory firms
Small teams with large clients who now send security questionnaires before they sign.
What goes wrong
Three ways a professional firm gets hurt
None of them need a sophisticated attacker. All of them start with an ordinary day at the office.
Risk 01 · Deadlines
Ransomware in your busiest week
Attackers know when firms can't afford downtime: the week before a filing deadline, quarter-end, or a project submittal. Locked files and a backup that was never test-restored turn a bad day into missed deadlines, extension requests, and calls you don't want to make.
Risk 02 · Client data
Client files walking out the door
Tax returns, statements, account numbers, and project drawings travel as email attachments, sit in personal Dropbox accounts, and stay reachable by people who left last year. Every copy is one you'd have to account for after an incident.
Risk 03 · Payments
Fake payment instructions
A convincing email asks a client to wire funds to a “new” account, or asks your bookkeeper to pay a vendor's “updated” invoice. It works because it reads exactly like you. The money is usually gone before anyone calls to check.
Already expected of you
Regulators and carriers got here first
Depending on what your firm does, someone already expects a written plan and proof that it's followed.
Tax & accounting
A written security plan
Firms that prepare returns are expected under the FTC Safeguards Rule, and by the IRS through Publication 4557, to keep a written information security plan and the safeguards behind it.
Financial advisors
Incident response and notification
SEC Regulation S-P now expects covered firms to have an incident response program and to notify affected customers after a breach. Your custodian and compliance consultant will ask about both.
Insurance
Your cyber policy's fine print
Coverage depends on the controls you attest to on the application: multi-factor sign-in, tested backups, training. If they aren't in place when you file a claim, the claim is at risk.
Your clients
Security questionnaires
Larger clients increasingly send security questionnaires before they engage a firm, and again at renewal. Clear answers backed by evidence win work; vague ones lose it.
General description, not legal or compliance advice. Your obligations depend on your licenses and clients.
Self-assessment
Eight questions for the managing partner
Answer honestly; nothing is sent anywhere.
Firm security review8 questions · about 60 seconds
Q1
Does every person at the firm, including the partners, use multi-factor authentication for email and remote access?
Q2
Do you have a written information security plan that reflects how the firm actually works today, not a template from years ago?
Q3
Are client documents shared through a secure portal instead of as email attachments?
Q4
Is every change to payment or account instructions confirmed by phone, at a number you already had on file?
Q5
When someone leaves, is their access removed the same day, everywhere?
Q6
Has someone actually restored your client files from backup in the last 90 days?
Q7
Could you answer a large client's security questionnaire this week, with evidence?
Q8
If systems went down the week of your biggest deadline, do you know who you'd call and how fast they'd answer?
Answer above and this line will tell you where the firm stands.
Get the findings memoScope of engagement
What we run for the firm
One team for the computers, the client data, and the paperwork that proves both are under control.
01
Client data protection
Keep client files where they belong, and be able to show who touched them.
- Secure client portals and file sharing to replace email attachments
- Access mapped to roles and engagements, removed the day someone leaves
- Encryption on laptops, phones, and file storage
02
Email & payment fraud defense
Close the path attackers use most against firms like yours.
- Multi-factor authentication and sign-in protection on every account
- Alerting on suspicious mailbox rules and sign-ins
- A written payment-verification procedure your staff will actually follow
03
Uptime for deadline season
Systems that are boring in the weeks that matter most.
- Monitored, patched workstations and servers
- Tested backups with a recovery time you've signed off on
- Planned maintenance scheduled around your deadlines, not through them
04
The paperwork that proves it
The documentation regulators, carriers, and clients ask for.
- A written information security plan (WISP) fitted to your firm
- Staff security training with completion records
- Clean answers for cyber insurance applications and client questionnaires
Straight answers
What firm owners ask us first
We're a small firm. Is this overkill?
The rules and the attackers don't scale down with headcount. Tax preparers are expected to keep a written security plan, insurers ask the same questions of a five-person firm as a fifty-person one, and small firms are targeted precisely because they're assumed to be easy. We size the work to the firm.
Will this get in the way during busy season?
No. We schedule changes around your deadlines, and nothing new rolls out in the weeks you can't afford a surprise. Multi-factor sign-in adds a few seconds a day; everything else should be invisible.
We already have someone who handles our computers.
Good. We'd rather work alongside them than replace them. What one person can't provide is continuous security monitoring, incident response, and the written program your carrier and clients want to see. That's the part we own.
What does the free assessment involve?
A short scoping call, a review of your environment, and a written findings memo: what we found, what it puts at risk, and what it costs to fix, ranked with the cheap fixes first. The memo is yours whether or not you hire us.
Get the findings memo
Tell us how many people you have, what software runs your practice, and how many offices you're covering. We'll tell you what's exposed, in writing, in about a week.
Request a Free Assessment