• FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOG IN
  • SIGN UP FOR FREE

Resourceful Finance Pro

  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • Sales & Use Tax
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
  • Fraud
  • Policy and culture
2 minute read

Building more secure passwords, based on updated IRS guidance

building more secure passwords based on updated IRS guidance
Jennifer Azara
by Jennifer Azara
February 6, 2020
  • SHARE ON

IRS would like you and your finance team to bump “Create more secure passwords” to the top of your priority list for 2020.

The Taxman recently released new advice in honor of National Tax Security Awareness Week.

And it has some very specific guidelines when it comes to passwords.

Here’s what IRS expects of you and your finance team now.

Ditch passwords in favor of these

First and foremost, make sure every member of your accounting and finance staff has switched to using phrases instead of single words to secure your systems and software.

That was the No. 1 takeaway from IRS’s advice.

The primary benefit? Phrases are easier to remember so staffers won’t have to write them down somewhere prying eyes can see.

But there are a slew of other security precautions IRS expects you to take. Make sure everyone on your team knows about these steps to more secure passwords:

  • Don’t use email addresses as user names if that’s an option
  • Change all default or temporary passwords that come with devices
  • Incorporate a combination of letters, numbers and special characters within your passphrase
  • Don’t simply update passwords (i.e. changing a 7 to an 8) – find a whole new phrase, and
  • Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

Shore up here, too

While IRS didn’t address this specifically in its latest update, there is one vulnerability that often isn’t password-protected at all: desktop folders.

Those little manila-shaped icons are leaving companies’, their employees’ and even their customers’ sensitive information at risk.

That’s the finding of the recent 2019 Varonis Global Data Risk Report.

Specifically, these two vulnerabilities make desktop folders a liability for every firm:

  • They’re not locked down. Nearly a quarter (22%) of folders are open to everyone. For 15% of your peers that equals more than one million folders that anyone could access.
  • They’re full of stale data. Almost three-quarters (73%) of desktop folders house stale data, which is sensitive info a company no longer needs to do business.

Going forward, all folders should be restricted only to those who need them. You’re also going to want IT to lock folders down and restrict access.

But you might encounter some pushback from IT when you raise the issue. The techies estimate it takes about six to eight hours per folder to locate and manually remove global access groups, then figure out who needs access and create new groups.

Considering how much a data breach could cost, it’s worth the effort.

Jennifer Azara
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer has covered business and finance for more than 24 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.

Get the

Resourceful Finance Pro Logo

Newsletter

With Resourceful Finance Pro arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Resourceful Finance Pro Logo
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • WRITE FOR US
  • ADVERTISE WITH US

Resourceful Finance Pro, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day's headlines, Resourceful Finance Pro delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Copyright © 2022 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

During your free trial, you can cancel at any time with a single click on your “Account” page.  It’s that easy.

preloader