October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month: What CPAs Need to Know

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) welcomes national cybersecurity awareness month (NCSAM) in October as an opportunity for CPAs and their firms to educate and remind their clients about the dangers and critical need to protect their personal data and financial information. It serves as a reminder to businesses, government entities, and non-profit organizations to do their part to protect their client and customer information. As tax, financial planners and business advisors, CPAs are a great resource for guidance on protecting financial data.

Now in its 15^th year, NCSAM was created as an effort between government and industry to help ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safe and secure online. October 1 marks the start of the month-long campaign.

The AICPA has worked tirelessly to help organizations around the world meet the growing challenge of cybersecurity attacks. In 2017, the AICPA introduced a market-driven, flexible and voluntary cybersecurity risk management reporting framework. The framework enables all organizations in industries worldwide to take a proactive and agile approach to cybersecurity risk management to communicate those activities with stakeholders.