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Industries — Professional Services

Protect the confidential work your clients trust you to handle.

Your reputation is built on discretion, accuracy, and responsiveness. Whether you run a law firm, accounting practice, advisory business, or consultancy, your team handles confidential files, client communications, online tools, and—in many cases—payment instructions that can be impersonated.

PrivaCore helps professional-services firms put clear, proportionate safeguards around shared files, email, client data, payment changes, staff access, and incident response. The goal is a business-ready plan your people can follow under pressure.

Request a Fraud & Cyber Risk Assessment → Try the Business Fraud Check

Where things can break

Familiar moments in a professional-services firm

A client asks to change payment instructions
Is the request confirmed through a known, independent channel?
A shared file or cloud account is accessed
Does the right person have the right level of access, and can activity be reviewed?
A convincing message requests confidential information
Does the team know how to pause, verify, and escalate?
What has been reported

A recovered case, and the pattern behind it

Reported case — July 2025
A law firm's $2.3 million payment, redirected and recovered

In July 2025, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre helped a Vancouver-area law firm recover a full $2.3 million payment after fraudsters used a spear-phishing attack to impersonate a trusted contact and redirect funds to a Hong Kong bank account. The transfer was intercepted through cross-border cooperation between the CAFC and Hong Kong police before the loss became permanent.

Recovery here depended on the transfer being flagged and reported fast. The better outcome is not needing recovery at all — verify any payment-instruction change through a known, independent contact before funds move.
Source: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre bulletin, published July 24, 2025. Read the bulletin ↗
Scenario to test
A client document requests a quick response

A file-sharing notice, a signed form, or a payment instruction looks familiar — it references a real matter, a real client, a real deadline. Does the team have a known way to verify the request before opening a file or changing an instruction?

Give every staff member one clear rule: confirm any document-driven request through a contact method you already have on file, not one supplied in the message itself.
Sources: Competition Bureau of Canada, "Protect your business from fraud" · Canadian Centre for Cyber Security guidance on malicious attachments and links
Sector-specific audit focus

What we review in a professional-services firm

  • Client-file access
  • Email and second-sign-in protection
  • Payment-change verification
  • Cloud collaboration
  • Retention and sharing practices
  • Third-party tools
  • Written first-response plan

The same core audit methodology applies across every industry — this checklist is how the review adapts to the way a firm actually runs.

A right-sized service level

The same three service levels, sized to your firm.

Packages are consistent across industries. These notes are practical starting points, not automatic recommendations — we confirm fit in a short conversation. Full deliverables are listed in the Services page.

Fraud & Cyber Risk AssessmentStarting at $750 CAD

A one-time review that shows you exactly where the risk is and what to fix first.

Ask about the Fraud & Cyber Risk Assessment →
PrivaCore Business ProtectionStarting at $299/month

Ongoing verification and monitoring, so new risks get caught as they happen.

Ask about Business Protection →
Managed ProtectionCustom quote

Coordinated ongoing protection for businesses that want continued support after the initial assessment.

Ask about Managed Protection →
Talk to PrivaCore

Tell us how your firm works.

A short set of qualifying questions — industry, team size, and what has your attention — is all we need to make the first conversation practical. The first call is free.

Start the conversation →
Common questions

Professional-services FAQs

We already have an IT provider. Where does PrivaCore fit?
PrivaCore does not replace your IT provider. The audit reviews business workflows — access, file-sharing, and vendor onboarding — and anything technical is coordinated with the providers you already use.
Will you need access to confidential client files?
No. The audit reviews practices and controls — how access, sharing, verification, and retention work — not the content of client files.
Does this replace guidance from our professional body?
No — it complements it. Bodies such as the Law Society of Ontario publish dedicated material on fraud, social engineering, phishing, ransomware, and incident reporting; the audit turns that kind of guidance into a working plan for your firm. It is not legal advice or a compliance certification.
Can this help with client or insurer security questionnaires?
An evidence-based, plain-language report gives you a clearer basis for those conversations. The audit is not a certification, and we will never describe it as one.

Free tool: Generate a written Payment Verification Policy for your firm →

Ongoing protection: Continuous M365 Fraud & Identity Monitoring for your firm →

Sources and further reading
Law Society of Ontario — Cybersecurity and fraud practice resources Competition Bureau of Canada — Protect your business from fraud Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Canadian Centre for Cyber Security — Baseline controls for small and medium organizations