Working in the cloud?

Who else can see what you're doing? Where exactly is your data stored? Which country? Or is it on the moon? Who really knows? Maybe Chris Hadfield can fill us in...

Last night I did a presentation on QuickBooks Online for accountants at the Fraser Valley CGA Computer User Group. Accountants may be invited to participate in QBOnline by their clients for free. Exactly what does that mean to accountants? How can they participate securely? Do they want to participate?

No one in the group is willing to download their own online banking into a program on the cloud stored in another country just yet.  I'm not surprised by that. But how many of their clients already do? There's all these free accounting programs out there willing to ask you to sign in to your bank and download your transactions for free. Where exactly is that stored? One does wonder... And who are these people that own these companies? Intuit has been around for years, and we think we know them, but do we really?  And what about the others hoping to break into the market? Wave, FreshBooks, etc.

See my Productivity Tools page under "Free Stuff" on my website for links to many of these tools, many are APPs you can load to your mobile devices.

There was an article I found on another blog that someone asked me to post so here's the link!

CFO.COM article on why CFO's should oversee company cloud initiatives

Terms of services, unauthorized use of cloud-based tools and programs and acceptable policies and procedures for cloud products and services need to be stick handled by someone who knows how to set controls in place and manage corporate activity on the cloud.

The Bottom Line April 2013 had an article about Hackers looking to 'spear' small businesses. Richard Morochove, FCA of Morochove & Associates Inc. wrote about how the bank will be attempting to call you to confirm if there is suspicious transactions, and the fraudsters will use TD0s attacks, automated dialing programs to override your ability to call or receive calls on your phone. Nasty.

Richard recommended you don't use your PC to perform online banking, keep your software up to date for Malware and Virus catching, and change your passwords frequently. That, and perform full scans frequently and know what to do, or who to call should you be infected or attacked.'

When was the last time you changed your banking passwords?  Where are your passwords stored?