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10 Easy Steps to Speed Up Your Computer - Without Upgrading
10 Easy Steps to Speed Up Your Computer - Without Upgrading
By Jim Shutes
Lapeer Tech Group
It seems that the longer you own your computer, the slower it gets! A lot of people will keep their computer until it gets so slow that they feel...
An Outsourcer’s Passage To India: How To Do It, Part I
Frankfurt airport departure lounge. Full of western tech executives, each with an open laptop. They're all from different companies, all travelling separately. But one particular subject is making them feel like they're old college buddies, and...
Dirty Little Computer Viruses and How To Protect Yourself
Whether you have learned your lesson from a past experience with a nasty computer virus or have been pressing your luck by surfing the web and downloading various files or opening those email messages sent to you by people you don’t know without...
E-commerce, A No Nonsense Perspective For New Business
Success is about making fewer mistakes - why you should read this Guide?
Whilst failure is one of the best ways we can learn, learning from others’ experience is far less painful - and that’s essentially the point of this guide! Learning from...
How to Prevent Computer Security Risk and How to Keep Your Small Business Safe
You know that computer security is important to your small business. But do you know exactly what you need to do today to protect your business? Do you know all of the risks to your business computer system? Do you know the steps you need to take to...
Learn How To Safely Backup Your Hard Drive
We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible.But if you're like most of us,you will get to it tomorrow.The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious computer failure and then its too lake.
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Need a Copy of Your Tax Return Information?
Taxpayers have two easy and convenient options for getting copies of their federal tax return information — tax return transcripts and tax account transcripts — by phone or by mail. A tax return transcript shows most line items from the tax return...
Openly Sharing Your RFP Objectives and Information with Vendors
On the surface, the idea of beginning your project by clearly stating your Request for Proposal (RFP) objectives and then communicating them directly to your potential suppliers would seem to be obvious. However, that has certainly not been the...
The Essential Data Recovery Report
Your worst nightmare just became a horrifying reality. You keep hearing that little voice in your head mockingly shout “you should have backed that stuff up” The voice keeps echoing throughout your head as you perform a quick inventory all of the...
What could Macedonia Learn from a Tiger? The Asian Tigers and the Phenomenon of Uninterrupted Economic Growth
The first reaction of economies in transition is a sharp decline in their production, mainly in industrial production. In the countries which attained independence with the demise of the British Empire (where the sun never set) - industrial...
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Hackers Given Access to IRS Computers?
The Treasury Department inspector general has reported a distinct weakness in the security surrounding the IRS computer systems. Unlike the problems found with other security systems, this one is human.
The Treasury Department inspector general conducted a study to see if IRS employees could be manipulated into providing information that would compromise computer security. Treasury Department inspectors called IRS agents and managers posing as computer technicians. The inspectors told the employees that they were trying to fix problems with the computer network platform. They then asked the employess to provide the login and passwords for their administrative accounts. More than one-third of the agents provided the information and even allowed the inspectors to change the passwords.
The IRS has rules in place that prohibit employees from divulging passwords. Despite these rules, employees gave several reasons for providing the information. Some said they were not suspicious of foul play while others wanted to be helpful to the technicians. Some employees were suspicious, but were given
permission to provide the information by the managers in their departments.
The taxpayer database maintained by the IRS contains incredibly valuable information. The hacks of Choicepoint and LexisNexus pail in comparison to a hack of the IRS database. Imagine a hacker getting access to the tax identification numbers of every person and business in the United States. Making matters worse, the database also contains the name and number of every account kicking out interest and dividends for each taxpayer including bank accounts and investment accounts. The exposure of such information would be a windfall for identity theft scams.
The IRS has responded to the study by sending an email to all employees alerting them of the rules regarding divulging information. You have to wonder how long the employees will keep it in mind.
About the Author
Richard Chapo is CEO of Business Tax Recovery - Obtaining tax refunds for small businesses by finding
overlooked tax deductions and credits through a free tax return review.
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