Financial data of enterprises is one of the most valuable information that requires special protection. In the era of digitalization,many companies use online accounting programs,which raises questions about the level of security of these systems. How to secure sensitive data and do the technologies used by suppliers actually protect against threats?
Data encryption is the foundation for effective security of information stored and transmitted by accounting applications. Thanks to it,even if files are intercepted by unauthorized persons,the content remains incomprehensible without the appropriate decryption key. Modern program systems often use TLS protocols during transmission and advanced encryption algorithms for data stored on servers.
The use of strong encryption prevents unauthorized access that could lead to the leak of confidential documents or manipulation of accounting data. It often happens that companies focus on program functionalities at the expense of security aspects – and these are the ones that determine the actual protection of the digital content of the user account.
Do all platforms provide the same level of security? Unfortunately,no – differences appear especially in the way cryptographic mechanisms are implemented and updated. Some solutions also offer the possibility of managing encryption keys by the customer,which increases control over their own data.
Backups play an extremely important role in the operational security of the online accounting system. Loss of access to the database or file corruption may paralyze the work of the entire financial department. Regular backups allow you to quickly restore data after a disaster or ransomware attack.
Backups should be created automatically and stored on separate media or servers – separate from the main production environments – to avoid simultaneous loss of originals and copies. In practice,many users do not realize how rarely their data is archived with a cloud service provider or whether they have access to document version history.
Two-factor authentication significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized login,even if the password is stolen or cracked using brute force. 2FA requires providing a second element – it may be an SMS code,a push notification or a token generated by the mobile application.
This type of protection hinders phishing attacks and attempts to take over an account by using stolen passwords from other customer websites using the same login and password combination.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes significant requirements on the processing of personal information also within online financial and accounting systems. Companies must be sure that their supplier complies with the principles of minimizing the collected data and ensures transparency of activities towards data subjects.
Access to the databases must be limited only to authorized persons,and all operations must be recorded so that possible violations of compliance with the law can be detected. The lack of appropriate control mechanisms may result in high administrative penalties and loss of the company’s reputation on the market.
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