Overview
Allsouth Accounting is an Enrolled Agent Accounting firm located in the Greater Atlanta area, specializing in small business and tax accounting. Like many modern businesses, client communication is handled primarily through phone and email.
Situation Analysis
The Catalyst for Change
Allsouth Accounting had been locked out of their email accounts after being blocked by their provider. While they had other means of communication, email was unavailable. They reached out to our team after a week of trying to solve this issue themselves. Our team had them functional again in 5 hours.
The Challenge
The immediate challenge was restoring business continuity as quickly as possible while minimizing the risk of recurrence and implementing safeguards should another incident occur. Also, to further complicate the issue, they were not an existing client, so we had no information and no access to anything. Our initial steps included:
- Immediate email redirection to another provider so that business communication could resume NOW
- Cybersecurity assessment and implementation to make sure we were working with clean systems
- Enact backup solutions to safeguard all DATA
- Begin process of gaining access to existing email system
Seventh Wall’s Strategic Solution
Stage One: Restore Business Continuity while securing the company
Allsouth Accounting used a different provider for both email and data storage, which allowed for the following steps to be taken:
- Lock down web domain to prevent unauthorized access.
- Secure the data storage accounts and configure all necessary email addresses through a secondary provider
- Removed DNS records from the original email provider and updated DNS records with the data storage provider to make it their primary email location.
- Enabled enhanced security measures to keep all configured accounts safe.
- Enact data backups of both the email accounts and data storage files
Once that was done, the Allsouth team could work. They could use email through their secondary provider. This removed much of the pain and urgency in the situation.
Stage Two: Gain access to locked account
Now that Allsouth was back in business, we began the long process of unlocking their primary email system. This took over a week, but once this was completed, the following steps were taken:
- Enable enhanced security measures with their primary email vendor
- Route emails from the secondary provider back to this primary provider
Stage Three: Become their IT team
After this event, Allsouth asked us to take care of them. They never wanted to have to worry about email or data access or security again. We completed a full audit and subsequent onboarding process, all while minimally impacting day-to-day business operations.
The Aftermath and Legacy
This case highlights the importance of quick response and strategic planning in addressing urgent IT issues while laying the groundwork for long-term security and operational efficiency. The successful resolution of this emergency built trust between both companies. Allsouth trusted us to help this with expertise and patience and we trusted Allsouth as a responsive and polite client. Ultimately, Allsouth as well as Seventh Wall gained from this event. We gained a quality, thoughtful client and Allsouth gained a caring partner to help them as their business grows.