Get Off the Hackers' Hit List Evolving Competencies for Finance Firms Today By Jodi Chavez ALMOST FROM THE outset of the pandemic, financial services organizations found themselves near the top of hackers' hit lists. And, at least in a few crucial respects, it's not so hard to see why. Reams of personal and financial data. Intimate institutional connections, often to much larger fish in the ecosystem. Comparatively immature IT infrastructures. Limited overall threat awareness. From the other end of the periscope, we must have looked like sitting ducks. 6 MARCH 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com The good news is the extent to which that narrative is no longer true. The range of responses from financial services companies of all kinds, and the swiftness with which many have made changes to bolster both IT and accounting practices in the name of security, has been truly awe-inspiring to watch. But there's still a lot of work to be done. In this article, I want to first briefly recap the latest cybersecurity numbershttp://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com