GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
59
The Year-End Cybersecurity Challenge As the end of the year approaches, payrollers around the globe find themselves deep in one of the most critical periods of the fiscal calendar: year-end processing.
Payrollers must balance accuracy with tight deadlines (much of this information must be reported within 45 days of the start of the new year), and
In the United States, this time of year requires precise attention to detail as payroll teams prepare employee tax documents, reconcile discrepancies, and ensure that every paycheck and tax report is accurate. However, beyond the tax codes and deadlines, another challenge looms large—cybersecurity. Stresses on Payroll Year-end is a massive undertaking for payroll teams, particularly in the US, where it involves preparing accurate yearly employee income and withholding statements using Forms W-2 within a month, other annual payment statements such as 1099s, as well as payroll summaries, all while ensuring compliance with various— and changing--tax laws. It is a time filled with data collection, reconciliation, and collaboration across departments. The volume of personal information processed during this period is staggering. Data on tax forms, such as Social Security numbers, accumulated benefits-related figures, direct deposit details, and other non- tax additions and deductions all flow through payroll systems, adding to the complexity of the task at hand.
this pressure alone is significant. However, when you add in the
responsibility of securing this wealth of sensitive data from potential cyber threats, the demands placed on payroll teams become even greater. Threats in the U.S. One of the most common threats is phishing attacks, where cybercriminals impersonate senior management or tax authorities in emails to request sensitive information like employee bank details or tax records. Also known as social engineering, these fraudulent emails often use urgent language to trick recipients into sharing confidential data. In a notorious U.S.-based scam, several payrollers and others in the past few years have been duped by email fraudsters into thinking a high-level executive emailed them needing the company’s W-2 information file, and dutifully sent the information to the fake email in the link. Year-end is the perfect time to think these kinds of requests are legitimate.
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator