Overview

The annual global cost of cybercrime is high and getting higher all the time. In fact, cyber criminals reap a windfall from their activities that is estimated to have been $450 billion in 2015 and is anticipated to climb to an annual $6 trillion average by 2021. Almost all of that cybercrime began with—and continues to start with—a social engineering concept known as “phishing.”

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 informationIncluded 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 victim, and informed of proper steps to take if they do become victims

We examine cybercrime and will discuss:

  • The extent of the cybercrime problem;
  • The potential costs to a tax preparer whose taxpayer data has been breached;
  • The best practices a tax preparer may implement to avoid becoming a cybercrime victim; and
  • What a tax preparer should do if its taxpayer data has been breached.

CPE Acceptance

 

CPE Course For:

CPAs in most states (chart)
Other Professionals (chart)
 AFSP
 EA
 Tax Preparer

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Online Course Materials

Fully online PDF materials included in course.

Login to your course to read online / print / save to local drive

Materials include:

  • Clickable table of contents
  • Learning objectives--each section
  • Review questions--each section
  • Answers to review questions + explanations
  • Glossary of terms used
  • Worksheets, forms and examples
  • Index with page numbers

* Fully searchable *

Details

Fun CPE Course #: PWX3022
Materials: Online materials
Format: Interactive self-study
Subject: Federal Tax
Exam questions:  Final-15 multiple choice
Document length:  56 pages
Passing score: 70% | Unlimited retakes
Prerequisites: None
Advance prep: None
Course level: Overview
Last reviewed/updated: 01/01/22
Expiration: One year from enrollment

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

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