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Business Risk Services
Our Business Risk Services team deliver practical and pragmatic solutions that support clients in growing and protecting the inherent value of their businesses.
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Corporate Finance and Deal Advisory
We offer a dedicated team of experienced individuals with a focus on successfully executing transactions for corporates and financial institutions. We offer an integrated approach, with our corporate finance specialists working seamlessly with tax and other specialists to ensure that every angle is covered.
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Economic Advisory
Our all-island Economics Advisory team combines expertise in economics and business with a wealth of experience across the public and private sectors.
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Forensic Accounting
We have a different way of doing business by delivering real insight through a combination of technical rigour, commercial experience and intuitive judgment. We take pride in delivering responsive and tailored solutions to all our clients, capitalising on the wealth of experience housed within our Belfast and wider Forensics team
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People and Change Consulting
The Grant Thornton People & Change Consulting practice works with clients on these issues as well as on all aspects of how they attract, retain, engage develop, deploy and lead their people.
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Restructuring
We work with a wide variety of clients and stakeholders such as high street banks, private equity funds, directors, government agencies and creditors to implement solutions which provide the best possible outcomes.
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Technology Consulting
Motivating and assisting our clients to pursue, maintain and secure the benefits of digital solutions is at the core of our Digital Transformation teams' agenda and goals. We work with business leaders to deliver efficient digital strategies and operating models that provide new or enhanced capabilities.
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Corporate and International Tax
Northern Ireland businesses face further challenges as they operate in the only part of the UK that has a land border with a country offering a lower tax rate.
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Employer Solutions
Our team specialises in remuneration and incentive planning and works closely with employers, shareholders and employees to ensure that business strategies are aligned and goals achieved in the most tax efficient, cost-effective manner.
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Entrepreneur and Private Client Taxes
Our team of experienced advisors are on hand to guide you through any decision or transaction ranging from the establishment of new business ventures, to realising value on exit, to succession planning and providing for loved ones.
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Global Mobility Services
Grant Thornton Ireland offer a different approach to managing global mobility. We have brought together specialists from our tax, global payroll, people and change and financial accounting teams across Ireland and Northern Ireland, while drawing on the knowledge and insights of our global network of over 143 offices of mobility professionals to provide you with a holistic approach to managing global mobility.
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Outsourced Payroll
Our outsourced service provides valued service to over 150 separate PAYE schemes. These ranging from 1 to 1000 employees, working for micro, SME and global employers. The service is supported by the integrated network of tax and global mobility teams and the wider Grant Thornton network delivering a seamless service. Experienced staff deliver a personal service built around your business needs.
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Tax Disputes and Investigations
Our Tax Disputes and Investigation team is made up of tax experts and former HMRC investigators who have years of experience in dealing with a variety of tax investigations. Our expertise and insight can guide you through all interactions, keeping your cost at a minimum while allowing you to continue with the day to day running of your business.
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VAT and Indirect Taxes
At Grant Thornton (NI) LLP, our team helps Northern Ireland businesses manage their UK and global indirect tax risks which, as transactional taxes, can quickly become big liabilities.
Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the COVID-19 panic, targeting individuals, corporations, governments and industries in Ireland and around the globe.
Phishing campaigns in multiple languages suggesting a COVID-19 cure, linking to fake World Health Organisation advice websites and offering up guides as attachments are all designed to separate users from their usernames and passwords, capture personal and sensitive information and deny users access to their systems.
This should not come as a surprise. Cyber criminals will use any issue to extort for their own gain, and COVID-19 is no exception – a lure to compromise victim’s computers due to the confusion, urgency, misinformation and a personal connection for all – it’s a criminal’s gold mine.
As organisations rush to shift their businesses and workforce online with a heavy reliance on working from home, cybercriminals are ramping up their tactics to take advantage of those who may have inadequate or naive security postures as a result.
If you’re enacting or broadening your remote working policies, we encourage you to consider the following:
Beware of scam emails
Be especially wary of any email or communication suggesting it is from the HSE or WHO, even if it appears to come from a legitimate address. Unless you operate in the healthcare industry, it is unlikely that these agencies will be sending you emails about COVID-19 and certainly not requested payments or usernames/passwords. Also, remember that official entities do not take cryptocurrency payments, so any request of this type should be considered malicious.
Refresh team security knowledge
Promote your information security policy, particularly the areas which talk about remote working, mobile device security and use of public Wi-Fi.
Most cyber criminals will attempt to exploit social engineering opportunity. They will try to convince you to do something you should not! You may want to ask your teams to take an additional online training course for cybersecurity fundamentals or phishing training.
Remind your teams about the importance and construct of a good password.
Reinforce to users that home PC’s are not to be used for work or client data.
Be clear on how remote support will work
Make sure you have a robust remote access solution with appropriate authentication (ideally multi-factor) and encryption. If you are rolling out a new solution make sure its’ security is tested before it’s deployed.
Users may no longer be able to visit the IT helpdesk physically and organisations need to prepare staff for new procedures for IT support.
Reconfirm helpdesk phone numbers, email addresses and web site details.
Let employees know how to access remote support.
Confirm with employees if they will or will not need to download software for remote support. If they need to install new software, do it through official methods and before any work from home strategy is enacted.
Give teams a mechanism to report issues when things do go wrong.
Employees should avoid using free Wi-Fi. Instead, use a personal hotspot, which is more secure, and be sure to disable mobile Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use to prevent connecting to unknown networks or peer-to-peer devices.
Staying up to date and moving with the changes
If you’ve been thinking about rolling out multi-factor authentication, there is no time like the present. With attack surfaces growing exponentially and new wireless networks and locations being used to connect to corporate systems, MFA has never been more important.
Make sure everything is up to date – antivirus, and software patches.
Review your systems logs and alerts given the significant changes in attack potential for your organisation.
Remote working offers a great coping mechanism to the COVID-19 health pandemic which is testing individuals, organisations, communities and countries resilience like never before.
Consider reviewing the security of your current remote access solution.
By taking some pragmatic steps, organisations and individuals can prepare so that information security is not an unintended casualty of the pandemic.