Accounting Firm Sharply Reduces Phishing Click Rate

This well-established Tampa CPA firm handles some of the most sensitive data imaginable: tax returns, financial statements, social security numbers, bank account details, and business valuations for hundreds of clients. A single breach could be catastrophic - not just for the firm, but for every client they serve.

When they engaged EasyWayIT, one of our first recommendations was a baseline phishing simulation to assess their human security posture. The results were alarming:

In plain terms: a large share of employees clicked a fake phishing link, and many entered their actual credentials on a fake login page. Perhaps most concerning, not a single person reported the suspicious email to IT.

The results were a wake-up call. The firm employs smart people - CPAs, tax attorneys, and financial advisors - yet so many had still fallen for a single phishing email.

The answer was simple: they'd never been trained to recognize them. And like most people, they were busy, distracted, and trusting - exactly what attackers count on.

We implemented a comprehensive security awareness program designed specifically for busy professionals who don't have time for lengthy training sessions but desperately need the knowledge to protect client data.

The Training Program

Curriculum Topics

Over 6 months, we covered:

• Email red flags - Sender mismatches, urgency tactics, suspicious links
• Business Email Compromise (BEC) - Recognizing fake wire transfer requests
• Invoice fraud - Vendor impersonation and payment redirect scams
• Credential harvesting - Fake login pages and MFA bypass attempts
• Social engineering - Phone-based pretexting and physical security
• IRS impersonation scams - Tax-season specific threats
• Safe browsing - Avoiding malicious websites and downloads
• Password hygiene - Creating strong passwords, using password managers