Did you just send your finance data by email?

Are you collecting information for your tax return?

It's that time of year again and we are working hard and getting our income details over to our accountants for the dreaded tax return deadlines. Most of us put it off - it's not a fun job and the boring admin of finding receipts, records, credit card statements etc is not what we have in mind for the holiday season.

Are you sending your data securely?

Your poor accountant has spent a lot of time and money giving you secure ways to upload your data. But did you forget to use them? It can be fiddly remembering those pesky passwords and logging into online portals you haven't used since last year!

Is email secure enough?

The temptation is to simply scan the documents and attach them to an email. Why not? You have deadlines to meet and places to go!

Do you know that most emails are not encrypted? And unless you separately encrypted the attachments as well anyone who accesses that email has access to your financial data?

Do you know that your emails don't go directly from your outbox to your accountant's inbox but route through multiple servers along the way?

And if you have not properly secured your email and your email gets hacked there is all your financial data sitting there waiting for the hacker to use

GDPR is not just for Christmas

Data thieves love the holidays and tax deadlines. Their programmes sit on servers all over the world waiting for information from people like us! Don't give them a present this year!

If you can't remember how to securely transmit financial data to your accountant - ask them.

Their job is to provide you with a secure option. And our job is to use it!

Let's keep that information safe and secure.