JH Accounting: Accounting Firm IT, Cybersecurity & FTC Safeguards Compliance Case Study

The challenge

JH Accounting had grown into a busy 65-person Los Angeles CPA firm serving clients through every tax season. Like many fast-growing accounting practices, its technology had been built for a smaller team — and with sensitive client tax and financial records to protect, plus FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557 obligations to meet, it was time to bring IT up to an enterprise standard.

• No enterprise endpoint securityWorkstations and servers were running without managed EDR/MDR, leaving no centralized threat detection or response across the firm.
• Email exposed to phishing and wire fraudEmail — the channel accounting firms are most targeted through — lacked enterprise-grade protection against phishing, impersonation, and fraudulent payment requests.
• No multi-factor authenticationAccess to systems holding client tax data was protected by passwords alone, without MFA.
• No enterprise spam filteringInboxes had no advanced spam and threat filtering in front of them.
• No tested backup or disaster recoveryThere was no tested backup and recovery plan — a serious risk for a firm that cannot afford downtime during tax season.
• Reactive break-fix supportIT was handled reactively, with no proactive monitoring, patching, or a dedicated team that knew the environment.
• Compliance gapsThe firm had no documented Written Information Security Plan (WISP) to satisfy IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule.

The solution

Advanced Networks brought JH Accounting up to an enterprise standard — layering in managed security, modern email protection, resilient backup, and full-service IT, all built around the data-protection and compliance expectations of a CPA firm. Explore our accounting firm IT services in Los Angeles.

Managed EDR/MDR

We rolled out managed endpoint detection and response across every device, giving the firm 24/7 threat detection and expert response.

Multi-factor authentication

We deployed multi-factor authentication firm-wide, closing the biggest gap in access security and protecting confidential client tax data.

Enterprise email security & anti-phishing

We put enterprise email security and advanced spam filtering in front of every inbox, blocking phishing, impersonation, and wire-fraud attempts before they reach staff.

Backup & disaster recovery

We implemented tested backup and disaster recovery, so recovery from a hardware failure, ransomware event, or accidental deletion is measured in hours, not lost days during tax season.

Full managed IT services

We took over the firm’s IT end to end — 24/7 monitoring, proactive patching, helpdesk, and support for core accounting and tax applications — with every ticket held to a defined SLA.

FTC Safeguards & IRS 4557 compliance

We built the firm a documented Written Information Security Plan (WISP) and aligned controls to the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557, so JH Accounting is audit-ready and can demonstrate a mature security posture to clients and regulators.

The major projects

The results

• 99.9% system uptime, including peak tax season
• Zero tax-season downtime after the rebuild
• Thousands of phishing and spam messages blocked every month before reaching staff
• A Written Information Security Plan (WISP) in place for FTC Safeguards and IRS Publication 4557
• Faster support from a dedicated team that knows the firm’s environment and tax applications