By Rick Telberg
Special for HP
March 2005
For the third consecutive year, information security leads the list of top technology issues identified by an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' survey of high tech professionals. For accountants wondering about new business areas to focus on after tax season, this is opportunity on a grand scale. IT security skills are a must-have for all accounting practitioners and financial managers.
Don't count yourself out of the picture just because you are not already involved in technology systems implementation. Although the greater technology expertise the better, finance professionals in non-technology specialties owe it to their firms and companies to embrace this work area because IT security breakdowns become over-arching business management issues when they result in down time and loss of critical data.
Now is the time to look for a reliable partner who knows IT security and can help you do what's needed to make your firm and its clients confident amid all of today's security concern. But be advised, there are several different IT security areas that are key for businesses of all sizes, especially small and medium sized ones.
Hardware: Every traveling executive has at times probably harbored a fear of losing their laptop at an airport, but hardware theft is not all that uncommon inside a business's walls by unauthorized visitors or undesirable employees walking away with unsecured laptops, thin clients and small peripherals.
While there are a variety of specialty lock and clamp down cables on the market, it's also wise to keep data backed up on servers so when someone walks away with a computer, they don't also take any irreplaceable intellectual property. Likewise, make sure that firms and clients in the process of buying new laptops, review "drive lock" systems that prevent thieves from getting into hard drives.
Data: Even more vulnerable than the hardware is the data that's the lifeblood of the computers and of businesses themselves. Accountants can step forward as the guardian against unauthorized users tampering with and corrupting companies' data. In addition to multiple layers of computer passwords and the development of data encryption systems, advanced authentication systems based on such things as fingerprint recognition are also gaining in value.
Networks: With dozens of anti-virus and anti-spam solutions on the market, accountants are advised to learn which are most suitable for different business scenarios. And with so much Internet-based access to business networks and the unrelenting presence of hackers, firewalls are another vital security that smart accountants are keeping up with. The added plus of protecting the networks is that it also provides security to businesses' operating system and applications software.
Security Assessments: Regardless of how deeply involved you choose to get with actual implementation of security tools, there's a growing demand that accountants can fill in assessing businesses' IT security vulnerabilities and advising on how to remedy them.
Large public companies are required to assess their IT system, so why not position yourself as an IT security auditor to your clients or employer.
