It was a tremendous feeling being back out in the wild so to speak, attending Europe’s #1 Accountancy & Finance expo – ACCOUNTEX at the ExCel last Wednesday and Thursday.
My first major outing since the break of the pandemic, it was great to see so many people at ACCOUNTEX, some of whom I had only recently made acquaintance with through Zoom and such software, as well as meeting old friends and colleagues – wildly refreshing!
I had two ice-breakers at the ready of course; great to see you out of your pyjamas, and I thought you would be taller – Sanjay Shah and others – You know who you are..! ?
What did surprise me given the nature of the audience, was the lack presenters talking about RISK, only Rich Jackson from Moore ClearComm (the right height, as I expected), who was presenting on the ‘Human firewall: Reducing Cyber Risk in Accountancy’ and myself, presenting on ‘Mitigating Risk – Increase the Value You Provide’.
There where 17 theaters to attend across the two days with 7/8 speakers per day / theater (Wed/Thur) a total of 255 presentations to pick and choose from – my only criticism – maybe to many!
Our partners at VFDPRO sponsored the Accountants In Industry Theater for the two days, with full seats throughout, with Mark Walker and Steve Darnell, ‘Harnessing Data to Deliver Growth’ and ‘How to Build Your Part-Time FD Portfolio’ respectively as well as Exit Preparation, from Cliff Spolander (thought Cliff would be taller) from Business Optics another mutual supplier partner – ALL engaging and informative
After my presentation, which in part covered off risks of mobile phones and staff returning to work, and the malicious apps that staff have downloaded, everything from games to fitness, that I warned could cost a business thousands due to SPYWARE, that some attendees approached me afterwards saying this can’t be right..!
I went on to inform them of the following;
- A number of Virus infected QR reader apps have reportedly been made available in the Google Play Store
- The malware was designed to infiltrate mobile banking apps and steal passwords
- The malware had been installed by more that 10,000 users before it was removed
- That fraudsters build apps for every day uses, like games, battery saving or scanning
- These apps then infect their handsets with viruses that invades every part of the device
If you are allowing your staff to connect to the office networks, and these personal devices have malicious apps – BEWARE…
Think on this, the next time you go to the pub, and you can only order over an app, you will need to download a QR reader to your smartphone, what do you know about this QR/app, nothing……
In the InfoSec module of Risk Dashboard, we cover off BYOD (Bring your Own Device to Work), and how to protect your business from apps that you have no control over.
All of this aside, I am so looking forward to ACCOUNTEX 2023, and hopefully more speakers taking about RISK.
Risk Dashboard provides real-time evidence based continuous analysis for improved reporting and decision making for accountants, business advisors and their clients.
If you would like to know more about how Risk Dashboard can protect your business please contact Neil Campbell, Commercial Director at Risk Dashboard on info@riskdashboard.co.uk.