Data Security in Accounting Cloud

​Are you concerned about the security of your business accounting data? Either you have personally spent hours in gathering important information crucial for business or you may have compensate your staff to do so. Now you probably worried that a single negligence can put your entire accounting data at risk. If you are facing this problem every day, then moving to cloud accounting software can settle the anxiety related to data security.

If your business depends upon in-house accounting software, you are required to set up an effective disaster recovery plan. Because the accounting data is stored locally on a hard drive, any major consequences such as electrical surges, fire, computer crash or any such incidents can result in great data loss. In addition to this, many other drawbacks of local accounting software compels the need to adopt Cloud computing strategy.

Why Local Accounting Software is not Recommended?

• Risks & Threats Caused by Virus & Spams

​Accounting application installed locally saves data on local hard drive and this increase the risk of unauthorized access to crucial records. In addition, the computers are prone to virus attacks, spyware intrusion, hackers and similar risks. Furthermore, there are intellectual property threats, identity threats and similar activities that can cause business loss.

• Crucial Information is Easily Accessible

When all business data along with transaction details are stored on local PC, there are probabilities that it can be accessed by number of employees. Such data can be used for illegal activities and can result in breaching company policies and trust of clients. In such cases, even the potential access control measures sometimes fails in reducing the risk of data loss. 

• Time Consuming and Expensive Approach

When accounting software is hosted on in-house server, the organizations needs to execute regular software and hardware check and it can be time-consuming. Particularly in non-IT firms, the employers needs to train the employees about troubleshooting software errors. Alternatively, the business will require hiring IT staff who can take care of the application issues and errors to keep the software running.

Why Cloud Accounting Application is a Secure Option for Businesses?

• Access to Authorized Users Only

When you opt for hosted accounting application, only authorized users have the right to access business critical data. Entire data including employee and business details is stored at offsite location. With fraud protection and efficient encryption algorithms in place, the infrastructure is constantly analyzed for external attacks.

• Better Backup & Disaster Recovery Plan

Cloud hosting vendors are well familiar with potential threat to business critical information; hence, additional attention is paid to the security of data. Appropriate actions are taken to safeguard data from getting corrupt or inaccessible for which regular backups plans are executed. A uniform disaster recovery plan is implemented for protection of data.
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From above discussion, it is clear that cloud infrastructure is highly secure and potential source that accounting firms must adopt. However, it is important to check the reliability of cloud service providers before subscribing to their services. The businesses must check the firewall technology along with off-site backup strategy in place, security audits, user access-control permissions and related aspects being implemented by the vendor.