Kynektyd’s said its framework addresses concerns about how to ensure cloud technologies used to serve clients and provide employees with greater flexibility are safe and controlled. 

The firm’s model enables practitioners to show that due care was exercised in the execution of their professional duties should a cybersecurity incident occur. Kynektyd’s shared responsibility model allows practitioners to rely on service providers’ System and Organizational Controls and Organizational Controls and Organizational Controls (SOC) audit reports for meeting their ethical and regulatory obligations. 

The whitepaper details where technology vendors’ responsibilities end and practitioners’ begin. The security framework proposed is based on a premise that makes identity the primary parameter of defense. Kynektyd says reliance on SOC audit reports allows practitioners to focus on managing who has access to clients’ data and limits the damage an employee’s compromised identity could have on their firm’s clients. 

The report utilizes simple language to describe how a practitioner can deploy artificial intelligence to improve the effectiveness of an intrusion detection and prevention system. The model is inspired, in part, by the work of Roman V. Yampolskiy, a computer scientist at the University of Louisville, Kynektyd’s protocols employ several Microsoft technologies to allow small CPA firms to realize Yampolskiy’s vision cost-efficiently, the firm said.