Confidentiality and Security?

Confidentiality and Security
The IRS requires that your tax preparer keep and maintain taxpayer/client files in a secure and confidential manner.  This confidentiality applies to not only paper files, but also electronic files kept on the preparer's computers.  The IRS doesn't want the taxpayer to become a victim of identity theft.  To protect my clients from identity theft I store their electronic files on my own computer hard-drives  with password protection and encryption.   The software that provides this encryption was tested by the FBI, who could not break into it!   I keep my clients' paper files locked.
Does your tax preparer have you e-mail confidential information to her office?   Did you know that normal e-mail travels all over the internet and can remain on internet servers long after being sent?    Hackers of those servers could possibly get to view your information and retrieve your social security number and other valuable financial information about you.  Do you or your tax preparer bother to encrypt this confidential information so that what remains on webservers will be impossible to decipher by potential hackers?
To help protect my clients, I use a secure network in which all traffic within the network is encrypted.   Data stored on servers in the network are also encrypted.  The webservers are "equipped with the latest firewalls and computer internet security updates."   Many of the same servers in this network are also used "by banks and popular e-commerce services such as Amazon.com".    Each user of the system has a unique login and password.  The passwords themselves are "hashed" so that personnel who maintain the network can't recognize what they are.
To help save yourself from possible identity theft, you should ask your tax preparer what he or she does to keep your financial information confidential and secure.   Don't send an e-mail containing confidential information before determining that it will remain confidential and secure.