Verito Names Former IRS Communications Chief Terry Lemons Strategic Advisor as Cybersecurity Awareness Month Opens

Lemons, who served 11 years as the IRS Chief of Communications and Liaison, will advise Verito on turning complex security work into plain, actionable steps for tax preparers who never signed up to manage technology.

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 2, 2026/PRNewswire/ -- Verito, a cloud hosting and managed IT provider built exclusively for tax and accounting firms, announced that long-time IRS executive Terry Lemons joined the company as a strategic advisor on October 1, the first day of Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

At the IRS, Lemons oversaw national communications and worked closely with the tax professional community, including speaking extensively on data security and working on the Security Summit, a joint effort between the IRS, state tax agencies and the tax community to battle tax-related identity theft.

The Accidental IT Department

People go into tax and accounting to work with numbers and clients, not to manage technology. But as hackers and security rules have both evolved, many preparers have become part-time IT staff by default: researching regulations, navigating increasingly complex software, and writing security plans between client meetings. Verito calls this the Accidental IT Department.

Tax professionals know the rules they answer to, from IRS Publication 4557 to the FTC's Safeguards Rule. What helps practitioners navigate this complex IT landscape is plain direction what to do, in what order, and what they can hand off.

After the October 15 extension deadline, firms have a critical stretch before filing season to review their security plan, retrain staff, and close gaps.

"Our clients went into this work to serve their own clients, not to manage technology," said Jatin Narang, CEO and founder of Verito Inc. "Every new threat and every new rule still lands on their desk. Our job is to take that work off their plate. Terry spent his IRS career explaining complicated topics in terms tax professionals could act on, and he'll help us do the same."

What Lemons Will Do With Verito

• Make security guidance plain. Advise Verito on how it explains security to firm owners and staff, in plain terms they can act on.
• Join Verito webinars and panels. Appear as a speaker and moderator in sessions for tax and accounting firms and the associations that serve them.

"At the IRS, I spent more than a decade focused on data security through the Security Summit and related efforts," Lemons said. "I've been impressed by Verito's commitment to client service and their product. Working with the Verito team aligns with two of my long-term passions - highlighting the importance of protecting taxpayer data as well as working with the tax and accounting community."

How Verito Protects Firm Data

Firms run Drake, UltraTax CS, Lacerte, ProSeries, QuickBooks, and their other applications on their own private cloud server. Verito also offers Managed IT through its VeritGuard service, built specifically for tax and accounting firms. Every plan is built with the IRS and FTC regulations in mind: enterprise antivirus and firewall, MFA on every login, encryption in-transit and at rest, backups multiple times a day with regular testing, and a 24/7 support team monitoring everything.

Learn more at verito.com

About Terry Lemons

Terry Lemons spent more than 26 years at the IRS, including 11 as Communications and Liaison Chief, where he advised six IRS Commissioners, led a 325-person team, and created the agency's annual "Dirty Dozen" tax scams list. He retired in February 2025 and is Public Relations Director at Frost Law in metropolitan Washington. He's also written a new Arcadia Publishing book, "The Year St. Louis Became A Baseball Town: The Cardinals, Babe Ruth & The 1926 World Series."

About Verito

Work from anywhere on your firm's own private cloud server. Verito manages IT for tax and accounting firms: secure, monitored 24/7, support in under 60 seconds. Founded in 2016, Verito serves 1,000+ tax and accounting firms with 100% uptime and a 95 Net Promoter Score. Its promise: It just works. Securely. Learn more at verito.com.

SOURCE Verito