Data Protection Is Essential!

Accounting System Setup News

April 21, 2020

Who could have predicted this worldwide natural disaster, at the pandemic level that it’s become? Now, perhaps more than ever, it is imperative that federal contractors pay close attention to the integrity and security of their IT Infrastructure.

 

As we featured in our January 2020 newsletter, your IT and Accounting departments must work closely together to ensure NIST 800-171 Compliance, when its required. The fourteen areas of oversight, to ensure a minimum cybersecure environment are listed in the standard, or can be found here on this site, in our January article. If your contracts have a DFARS clause 252.204-7012 requirement, this may be a good time to review the NIST compliance.

 

Many of our clients are Small/Medium Sized Businesses, as the SBA would define them, and some have a minimal IT support team in place. Whether you rely on in-house support or utilize contracted IT services, you must go beyond the government’s contract requirements for IT and follow best practices for your enterprise. Every business is different and unique, yet every business needs to take extra measure to protect data with the new reality thrust upon businesses in this crisis.

 

Of course, in this unplanned remote, work-from-home scenario that has been thrust upon most businesses, we want you to protect all of your business data and, as an accounting firm, we want you to pay extra attention to backing up your accounting data! This would be a great time to have the IT department verify the integrity of your data protection technology, procedures and policies, as well as to ensure best practices are deployed.

 

The topic of “IT” is not in our lane, as they say, but it’s right beside “accounting” and DCAA Compliance. We can best provide accurate accounting and report preparation when the data is current. Beware of security vulnerabilities or relaxed IT policies that could impact your data!




 


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