Certain business organizations, among which are those referred to as financial institutions, are charged by the FTC with taking particular steps to protect their customers financial information. Included in the category of financial institutions are professional tax preparers. Professional tax preparers normally maintain a significant amount of taxpayer information in various files-electronic and paper-that would be a treasure trove for cyber criminals. In this course, tax preparers are introduced to the problem of cybercrime and its costs, offered methods that can be expected to reduce the chances of becoming a cybercrime victim, and informed of proper steps to take if they do become victims of cybercrime.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize the pervasiveness of cybercrime
• Identify the potential costs of experiencing a data breach
• Identify the best practices that may be implemented to protect a tax preparer from cybercrime
• Identify the responsibilities of a tax preparer who has experienced a taxpayer data breach