The IRS issued guidance on steps that tax professionals should take to protect their computers, email and taxpayer data. Non-tax professionals can learn from the guidance for best-practice security methods.
The guidance identifies six must-have areas to secure data on computers. These include:
- Anti-virus software. Anti-virus software allows users to scan their computers periodically. Consider automatic vs. manual scans.
- Firewalls protect against outside attacks by shielding the computer or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic. Firewalls have both hardware and software aspects.
- Two-factor authentication. Users should look for email providers that offer two-factor authentication protections to access email accounts.
- Backup software/services. Important files on computers should be backed up to external sources.
- Drive encryption. Users should use drive encryption software for full-disk encryption to transform data on the computer to unreadable files for unauthorized access.
- Data security plan. Companies should have a written data security plan.