January PICPA Town Hall: Inside the Mind of a Cyber Criminal

Cybercrime has evolved beyond amateur hackers and nuisance phishing emails. It is now a highly organised, low-risk and high-profit crime, and accountants have become a lucrative target. With access to financial systems, client identities, payroll data and tax refunds, accountancy firms hold the information criminals need to monetise attacks quickly and quietly. 

Drawing on experience as a former law enforcement cyber crime investigator, now a Chief Security Officer advising firms across the profession, I detail how criminals operate, the tools and access they exploit, and the uncomfortable truth that many attacks originate from within a business due to complacency, misplaced trust and the belief that “compliance is enough”. 

This session aims to redefine the audience’s understanding of cybersecurity in the accounting world and demonstrate why traditional assumptions are no longer protecting anyone.