Right now, across British Columbia, businesses are pulling together T4s, financial statements, and sensitive payroll data. Cybercriminals know this, and they’re counting on it. Tax season cybersecurity for White Rock BC businesses has never been more critical, especially when the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reports that only 5% to 10% of all fraud and cybercrime incidents in Canada are ever reported. The other 90% to 95%? Those victims stay silent, making the problem look far smaller than it actually is.
That fake CRA email sitting in your inbox right now could be the beginning of a nightmare that costs your company everything. And the scariest part? These scams have become so sophisticated that even experienced business owners are falling for them.
Why Tax Season Turns Your Inbox Into a Minefield
Every year between January and April, Canadian businesses enter a period of heightened financial activity. Tax documents move between offices, accountants, and government agencies at a pace that makes careful scrutiny feel impossible. Cybercriminals exploit this urgency with surgical precision.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre received 108,878 fraud reports in 2024, and phishing was among the most common methods used. February and January are consistently the highest-volume months for business email compromise attacks, according to research from Trustwave. Criminals know that during tax season, your team is more likely to open an email that appears to come from the CRA, your accountant, or your bank without a second thought.
For White Rock businesses working with accountants, sharing sensitive financial data with legal counsel, or filing compliance documents, every email attachment and every login request becomes a potential attack vector.
The CRA Impersonation Playbook
The CRA is one of the most impersonated organizations in Canada. Scammers create emails and text messages that look strikingly authentic, complete with government logos, official language, and even badge numbers. According to the Government of Canada, these scams range from fake refund notifications to threats of arrest for unpaid taxes.
Here is what modern CRA impersonation scams typically look like:
- Emails claiming you have a tax refund pending that require you to click a link and enter banking information to receive payment
- Text messages warning of an "error" on your CRA account that needs immediate correction through a provided link
- Phone calls from someone claiming to be a CRA agent demanding immediate payment through gift cards, cryptocurrency, or e-transfer
- Fake EFILE login pages designed to steal credentials from tax professionals and business owners who file electronically
The CRA has stated clearly that they’ll never send refunds by e-transfer, ask for payment through gift cards or cryptocurrency, or threaten arrest over the phone. If you receive any communication with these elements, it’s a scam.
Why Small Businesses in White Rock Are Prime Targets
There’s a dangerous myth among small business owners that cybercriminals only go after large corporations. The data tells a very different story.
According to a September 2024 survey by the Business Development Bank of Canada, 73% of Canadian small businesses have already experienced a cybersecurity incident, and 61% have dealt with a phishing attempt through email. These are not theoretical risks. They’re happening right now in communities like White Rock, Langley, and Surrey.
Employees at companies with fewer than 100 people experience 350% more phishing and social engineering attacks than employees at larger enterprises. The logic is simple. Smaller businesses typically have fewer security resources, less formal training, and leaner IT infrastructure. For cybercriminals looking to collect ransom or steal data, hitting 20 vulnerable small businesses is far easier than breaching one well-defended corporation.
Tax season cybersecurity for White Rock BC businesses demands extra attention because of this reality. Your size doesn’t make you invisible. It makes you a target.
Business Email Compromise: The Tax Season Favorite
Business email compromise, known as BEC, is one of the most financially devastating cyber threats facing small and medium businesses today. BEC attacks accounted for 73% of all reported cyber incidents in 2024, according to analysis from Hoxhunt's research on real-world phishing data.
These attacks work by impersonating someone your team already trusts. During tax season, that could be your accountant asking for a wire transfer, your CEO requesting employee tax documents, or a vendor sending an "updated" invoice with new banking details.
Watch for these warning signs of a BEC attack targeting your business:
- An email from your accountant or bookkeeper requesting an urgent wire transfer, especially with new or changed banking details
- A message from your CEO or manager asking for employee T4s, Social Insurance Numbers, or other tax documents sent by email
- Invoices arriving with slightly altered email addresses, such as a missing letter or an extra character in the domain name
- Requests marked "urgent" or "confidential" that pressure your team to act immediately without verifying through a phone call
Research from Trustwave confirmed that BEC email volume spikes significantly during January and February, precisely because criminals exploit the rush of tax season activity. The most common targets are employees who handle money, payments, and financial documents.
The Real Cost of Clicking That Link
The 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 60% of all confirmed data breaches involved the human element. That means someone clicked a link, opened an attachment, or handed over credentials. Technology didn’t fail. A person made a mistake under pressure.
For a small business in White Rock, one compromised email account during tax season can set off a chain reaction that is extremely difficult to contain. What starts as a single clicked link can quickly spiral into stolen client data, fraudulent wire transfers, and weeks of operational disruption.
What One Phishing Email Can Trigger
It starts with a single click. An employee opens what appears to be a CRA notification or a message from your accounting firm. The link leads to a fake login page that captures their credentials in seconds.
From there, attackers move laterally through your systems. They access shared drives containing tax records, client information, and financial statements. They monitor email threads to learn how your company communicates, then insert themselves into real conversations with fraudulent payment requests.
The 2025 Verizon report also revealed that ransomware appeared in 44% of breaches, a sharp increase from 32% the previous year. Small and medium-sized businesses were hit hardest, with ransomware involved in 88% of all breaches at SMB organizations. A phishing email disguised as a CRA notice could be the entry point for a ransomware attack that locks down your entire operation.
This is exactly why tax season cybersecurity for White Rock BC businesses isn’t just about avoiding inconvenience. It’s about protecting your company's ability to function.
How to Protect Your White Rock Business This Tax Season
The good news is that most of these attacks are preventable. Cybercriminals rely on urgency, confusion, and the absence of basic security measures. Taking even a few practical steps can dramatically reduce your risk.
Here are the most effective actions your business can take right now:
- Enable multi-factor authentication on every business account, especially email, banking, and accounting software, because CISA reports that MFA makes accounts 99% less likely to be compromised
- Establish a verbal verification policy for any financial request received by email, meaning your team picks up the phone and confirms directly before processing payments, sending tax documents, or changing banking details
- Restrict access to sensitive tax documents and financial records to only the employees who absolutely need them
- Use encrypted file-sharing platforms when sending T4s, financial statements, or other tax documents to your accountant, and never send sensitive files as unprotected email attachments
- Update all software, operating systems, and security tools before tax season activity peaks, because unpatched systems are a known entry point for attackers
Only 27% of small businesses currently use multi-factor authentication. That single statistic explains why small businesses remain disproportionately vulnerable to attacks that stronger authentication would prevent.
Building a Human Firewall
Technology matters, but your people are either your greatest defense or your biggest vulnerability. As the 2025 Verizon report confirmed, 60% of breaches involve the human element, meaning most incidents trace back to human error or social engineering, not sophisticated technical exploits.
Invest in training your team with these priorities before tax season peaks:
- Teach every employee to verify the sender's full email address on any message requesting financial action or sensitive information
- Run a simulated phishing exercise so your team can practice identifying fake CRA emails, fraudulent invoices, and impersonation attempts in a safe environment
- Create a clear, no-blame reporting protocol so employees feel comfortable flagging suspicious emails immediately rather than ignoring them out of embarrassment
- Require that no employee send tax documents, banking information, or payment confirmations without a secondary verification step such as a phone call or in-person confirmation
When your staff knows what to look for and feels empowered to speak up, you close the gap that cybercriminals depend on. Security awareness isn’t a one-time training session. It’s an ongoing conversation that needs to happen before, during, and after tax season.
Your IT Provider Should Be Your First Call, Not Your Last
Tax season cybersecurity for White Rock BC businesses is not a once-a-year project. It’s a year-round discipline that requires proactive monitoring, layered security, and a partner who understands the threats your business actually faces.
If your current IT provider hasn’t contacted you about tax season threats, hasn’t helped you implement multi-factor authentication, or hasn’t offered security awareness training for your staff, that silence should concern you.
The businesses that survive tax season without a cybersecurity incident aren’t lucky. They’re prepared. And preparation starts with a conversation about where your gaps are before criminals find them first.
Coleman Technologies provides 24/7/365 managed IT services with built-in cybersecurity for businesses across White Rock, Langley, Surrey, and the Fraser Valley. Schedule a free consultation to find out where your business stands before tax season puts you to the test.
Sources
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Fraud Prevention Month 2025 (antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca)
Government of Canada, Recognize a Scam, Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca)
Business Development Bank of Canada, Survey of Cybersecurity and Canadian SMEs, September 2024 (bdc.ca)
Verizon, 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (verizon.com)
StationX, Top Phishing Statistics for 2025 (stationx.net)
Trustwave SpiderLabs, Top 10 Trends in Business Email Compromise (trustwave.com)
Hoxhunt, Business Email Compromise Statistics (hoxhunt.com)
JumpCloud, MFA Adoption Research (jumpcloud.com)
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Multifactor Authentication (cisa.gov)
