What this summer’s federal security campaign means for any business holding sensitive data

What this summer’s federal security campaign means for any business holding sensitive data

This July, the IRS and its Security Summit partners launched Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself, a five-week campaign built for tax preparers. It walks through the phishing schemes, impersonation scams, and stolen-credential attacks criminals are using against professionals who hold sensitive client data, along with the basic safeguards, written security plans, and verification tools meant to stop them.

Your business may have nothing to do with taxes. But the tactics described in this campaign — fake “new client” emails carrying malware, spoofed calls, and urgent requests designed to pressure someone into clicking or sharing information — are used against every kind of small business, not just tax firms. If your company stores customer records, payment details, or employee data, you’re a target using the same playbook. Summer is a good time to check whether your own safeguards would hold up.

Action Steps for You and Your IT Team

1. Write down your security practices. A simple, documented policy covering data handling, access, and response is far better than relying on informal habits.
2. Enable multi-factor authentication on email, financial systems, and any remote access used by your team.
3. Review employee access regularly, and immediately revoke access for anyone who leaves the company.
4. Train your team to spot phishing and impersonation attempts, especially fake vendor invoices, urgent executive requests, and unexpected attachments.
5. Test your backups, not just assume they’re running, to confirm you could actually recover if something went wrong.
6. Document an incident response plan so your team knows exactly who to call and what to do the moment something looks wrong.

Questions Your Customers or Employees Might Ask

“How do you protect the information you have on file for us?”
We maintain a documented security policy, require multi-factor authentication across our systems, and regularly review who has access to sensitive data.

“What would happen if your systems were breached?”
We have a tested response plan and know exactly how we’d respond and notify anyone affected.

“Why do you keep asking us to verify things that used to be simple?”
Because verification steps protect both of us from scams that specifically exploit shortcuts and urgency.

How Farmhouse Networking Can Help

Farmhouse Networking helps small and mid-sized businesses turn good intentions into an actual, documented security program: written policies, MFA across your critical systems, cleaned-up user access, tested backups, and a clear incident response plan. We handle the technical details so you can run your business with confidence instead of guesswork.

Find Out Where Your Business Actually Stands

Email support@farmhousenetworking.com for a free security assessment, and close the gaps the IRS is warning everyone else about — before they cost you something worse.