LGT's Profit Sense

My name is Lee Ann Collins, managing partner of Lane Gorman Trubitt (LGT), a public accounting firm in Dallas, and this job is keeping me up at night.

With tax season upon us, it is important to be up to date on new tax scams that affect taxpayers. Many current scams involve new twists on the same old scam. The most prevalent one to be aware of for 2018 is a pervasive new telephone scam. Individuals are using taxpayer information to file false returns, sending the refund directly to the taxpayer. The taxpayer then receives a telephone call from an individual pretending to be with the IRS or in another position of authority and demands that the taxpayer returns the refund to a specified address due to an error.

With so much on their plates, it’s not surprising that cybersecurity isn’t at the top of some not-for-profits’ to-do lists.

But cyber risks are real and can prove costly in terms of both finances and reputation. Fortunately, you can take some proactive steps to reduce your risks without breaking the bank.

Cyber security: it’s not if, but when

In 2003 The Security Rule was enacted by the Department of Health and Human Services. Standards for the security of electronically protected health information were set. Six years later Massachusetts filed regulations to protect personal information of residents of the Commonwealth. In 2015, the Federal Trade Commission sued Wyndham Worldwide Corporation for their lack of data security, which led to millions of fraudulent dollars charged on consumers’ cards, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, along with account information was sent to a registered website in Russia. This year alone, Target, Sonic, and Equifax all had security breaches, compromising millions of consumers’ private information.