Watch Cloud's full security stack is purpose-built around IRS and FTC data security requirements. Every tool we deploy protects your clients, your firm, and your license.
See Pricing & Packages →These are the core tools every finance professional needs in place to meet IRS and FTC baseline security requirements. Every Watch Cloud plan starts here.
A WISP is a formal, written document that describes how your firm identifies, protects, and responds to data security risks — and it is explicitly required by the FTC Safeguards Rule for businesses that handle consumer financial information. Watch Cloud provides a professionally drafted WISP template as part of the Cyber Shield plan, so you have the required documentation in place from day one without needing to build it from scratch.
Remote Device Management gives Watch Cloud's security team visibility and control over the devices in your firm, allowing us to push security updates, enforce configurations, and respond to issues without requiring an on-site visit. This ensures that every computer your team uses is consistently patched, properly configured, and monitored for signs of compromise — a foundational step in protecting client data across your entire practice.
Watch Cloud deploys enterprise-grade antivirus software on every device in your firm, providing real-time scanning and detection of malicious files, suspicious programs, and known malware signatures. Unlike consumer antivirus tools, our solution is specifically tuned for finance environments and integrates directly with our other security layers — meaning a detected threat on one device can immediately trigger a response across your entire network.
Ransomware attacks on financial services firms have surged in recent years because attackers know that practices with client tax returns, financial records, and PII are highly motivated to pay. Watch Cloud's ransomware detection monitors your devices for the specific behavioral patterns — like mass file encryption or unusual access — that indicate a ransomware attack is underway, and can stop the process automatically before your data is locked.
EDR goes beyond traditional antivirus by continuously recording activity on each device and using behavioral analytics to detect threats that don't match known malware signatures — including zero-day attacks and fileless malware that bypass standard defenses. When a threat is identified, EDR can automatically isolate the affected device from your network, stopping the spread while our team investigates and remediates, minimizing disruption to your practice.
MDR is a fully managed security service where Watch Cloud's expert analysts actively monitor your environment, investigate alerts, and respond to threats on your behalf — so you don't need an in-house IT security team to stay protected. Rather than just alerting you to a problem, our MDR service takes action: containing threats, restoring affected systems, and providing a full incident report so you know exactly what happened and what was done to resolve it.
Our Security Operations Center is a dedicated team of cybersecurity analysts who monitor your firm's devices, networks, and systems around the clock, every single day of the year — including tax season, holidays, and weekends when threats are most likely to go unnoticed. The SOC serves as the eyes and ears behind all of Watch Cloud's detection services, ensuring that every alert is reviewed by a human expert and acted on with urgency when it matters most.
Endpoint Backup automatically and continuously backs up the data on each device in your firm to a secure, encrypted cloud environment, ensuring that your client files, financial records, and business documents can be fully restored even in the event of a ransomware attack, hardware failure, or accidental deletion. This service is a core component of any disaster recovery plan and is explicitly referenced in IRS Publication 4557 as a required safeguard for firms handling taxpayer data.
A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet, protecting all of your firm's traffic from interception — whether you're working from your office, at home, or at a coffee shop. For finance professionals who frequently work remotely or access client portals and tax software over shared networks, a VPN is an essential layer of protection that prevents credential theft, man-in-the-middle attacks, and unauthorized access to sensitive data in transit.
These services go beyond baseline security to help your firm build a documented, audit-ready security posture and protect against the most common attack vectors targeting finance professionals.
The Watch Cloud Readiness Kit is a curated set of resources, documentation templates, and guided workflows designed to help your firm quickly demonstrate that it meets IRS and FTC security requirements — without needing to research the regulations yourself. It brings together everything you need to show auditors, partners, and clients that your practice has a documented, proactive approach to data security, streamlining the compliance process so you can stay focused on serving your clients.
While the Cyber Shield plan includes a WISP template, Practice Defender clients receive a fully customized, professionally written Written Information Security Plan tailored specifically to their firm — including the firm's name, structure, services, and identified data security risks. Our security team handles the entire drafting process, ensuring your WISP accurately reflects your operations and fully satisfies the FTC Safeguards Rule requirement without requiring you to become a compliance expert.
Every Practice Defender client is assigned a dedicated Watch Cloud account manager — a single point of contact who knows your firm, your setup, and your history. Rather than reaching out to a generic support queue, you have a named professional who proactively checks in on your account, keeps you informed of any changes or threats relevant to your industry, and ensures that any issue you raise is handled with priority and personal attention.
Rather than a self-serve setup experience, Practice Defender clients receive personalized, guided onboarding with a Watch Cloud team member who walks through every step of your deployment — from installing the RMM agent and VPN to confirming that your WISP is in place and your devices are properly enrolled. This concierge approach ensures your security stack is correctly configured from day one, with no gaps or missed steps that could leave your firm exposed.
Email is the #1 attack vector against finance professionals — from phishing attempts and business email compromise to spoofed IRS correspondence designed to steal credentials. Watch Cloud's email monitoring continuously scans your firm's email environment for suspicious activity, unauthorized access attempts, and inbound threats, alerting your team and taking protective action when something dangerous is detected before it reaches your inbox or causes harm.
When credentials, personal information, or client data are stolen and sold, they often end up in dark web marketplaces long before the affected individual or business realizes anything is wrong. Watch Cloud continuously scans dark web forums, breach databases, and criminal marketplaces for your firm's domain, email addresses, and associated credentials — alerting you immediately if your information surfaces so you can take action before it is weaponized against your firm or your clients.
Phishing Awareness Training equips your staff with the knowledge and skills to identify and avoid phishing emails, fraudulent websites, and social engineering attempts before they result in a breach. Delivered through short, engaging modules tailored to the threats that specifically target finance and tax professionals, this training satisfies the IRS and FTC requirement for employee security education and dramatically reduces the risk of a successful attack on your firm.
Phishing simulations send realistic, controlled fake phishing emails to your team members to test whether they can identify and correctly handle an attack — without any real risk. Employees who fall for a simulation receive immediate, targeted coaching right at the moment of failure, making the lesson far more effective than scheduled training alone. Over time, these simulations measurably improve your firm's resilience to the most common attack method used against small financial practices.
Watch Cloud monitors your Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace environments for suspicious sign-in activity, unauthorized access, unusual file sharing, and configuration changes that could indicate an account compromise or insider threat. Additionally, we back up your cloud email, documents, and data on a regular schedule — so that even if your cloud accounts are compromised, locked, or accidentally deleted, your critical business and client information can be fully restored.
Firm Elite adds hands-on, relationship-based services designed for high-volume practices, multi-location firms, and organizations that need a dedicated security partner — not just software.
Firm Elite clients receive a guaranteed priority response from our Security Operations Center, with defined service level agreements that ensure your alerts are escalated and acted on faster than standard queue processing. For high-volume firms where even a short disruption can impact dozens of client engagements, this priority tier means that threats detected on your network are addressed with maximum urgency by our most senior analysts.
For Firm Elite clients, Watch Cloud drafts a fully bespoke Written Information Security Plan that reflects the specific structure, technology, personnel, and risk profile of your organization — and then reviews and updates it annually to ensure it stays current as your firm grows and as IRS and FTC regulations evolve. This is particularly important for multi-location firms, where a single generic WISP template is unlikely to accurately describe the actual security controls across your entire organization.
Every quarter, your dedicated security advisor conducts a structured review of your firm's security posture — covering any new threats relevant to the finance industry, changes in your technology environment, staff updates, and open action items from previous reviews. These check-ins ensure that your security program doesn't stagnate between annual reviews, and provide a documented record of ongoing security oversight that can be produced in the event of an audit or regulatory inquiry.
In the event of a security breach, ransomware attack, or data exposure event, Firm Elite clients receive direct, hands-on incident response support from Watch Cloud's team — including containment guidance, evidence preservation, communication templates for notifying affected clients, and coordination with the appropriate regulatory bodies. Navigating a security incident without expert guidance can result in costly mistakes; this service ensures your firm responds correctly, thoroughly, and in compliance with applicable notification requirements.
Firm Elite clients are assigned a senior dedicated security advisor who serves as a strategic partner for your organization — someone who deeply understands your firm's infrastructure, risk tolerance, and regulatory obligations and can provide proactive, tailored guidance as your business evolves. Unlike a standard account manager, your security advisor has the technical expertise to evaluate emerging threats, recommend policy changes, and help you build a long-term security roadmap aligned with both your operational goals and industry requirements.
For firms operating across multiple offices or locations, Watch Cloud's multi-location support ensures that every site — regardless of size or geography — is enrolled, monitored, and protected under a unified security program with consistent policies and visibility from a single management console. This eliminates the risk of security gaps at smaller or satellite locations, ensures consistent enforcement of your WISP across the entire organization, and simplifies reporting for firms that need to demonstrate enterprise-wide compliance.
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