irs Archives - s0x • Austin Managed IT Services

22 Feb, 2022

IRS: Selfies Now Optional, Biometric Data to Be Deleted

Cybersecurity A Little Sunshine, id.me, Internal Revenue Service, irs, login.gov, Sen. Ron Wyden, U.S. General Services Administration

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said Monday that taxpayers are no longer required to provide facial scans to create an account online at irs.gov. In lieu of providing biometric data, taxpayers can now opt for a live video interview with ID.me, the privately-held Virginia company that runs the agency’s identity proofing system. The IRS also said any biometric data already shared with ID.me would be permanently deleted over the next few weeks, and any biometric data provided for new signups will be destroyed after an account is created. …

3 Feb, 2022

How Phishers Are Slinking Their Links Into LinkedIn

Cybersecurity A Little Sunshine, amazon, Avanan, Check Point, Fortinet, irs, Jeremy Fuchs, Latest Warnings, LinkedIn, microsoft, Paypal, Slinks, Web Fraud 2.0

If you received a link to LinkedIn.com via email, SMS or instant message, would you click it? Spammers, phishers and other ne’er-do-wells are hoping you will, because they’ve long taken advantage of a marketing feature on the business networking site which lets them create a LinkedIn.com link that bounces your browser to other websites, such as phishing pages that mimic top online brands (but chiefly Linkedin’s parent firm Microsoft). …

4 Dec, 2020

IRS to Make ID Protection PIN Open to All

Cybersecurity Identity Protection Personal Identification Number, Internal Revenue Service, IP PIN, irs, Security Tools, tax refund fraud

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this week that beginning in 2021 it will allow all taxpayers to apply for an identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN), a single-use code designed to block identity thieves from falsely claiming a tax refund in your name. Currently, IP PINs are issued only to those who fill out an ID theft affidavit, or to taxpayers who’ve experienced tax refund fraud in previous years. …

10 Apr, 2020

New IRS Site Could Make it Easy for Thieves to Intercept Some Stimulus Payments

Cybersecurity Economic Impact Payment, Internal Revenue Service, Intuit, irs, Latest Warnings, tax refund fraud, The Coming Storm

The U.S. federal government is now in the process of sending Economic Impact Payments by direct deposit to millions of Americans. Most who are eligible for payments can expect to have funds direct-deposited into the same bank accounts listed on previous years’ tax filings sometime next week. Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stood up a site to collect bank account information from the many Americans who don’t usually file a tax return. The question is, will those non-filers have a chance to claim their payments before fraudsters do? …

14 Feb, 2020

A Light at the End of Liberty Reserve’s Demise?

Cybersecurity A Little Sunshine, Arthur Budovsky, irs, Liberty Reserve, U.S. Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Justice Department

In May 2013, the U.S. Justice Department seized Liberty Reserve, alleging the virtual currency service acted as a $6 billion financial hub for the cybercrime world. Prompted by assurances that the government would one day afford Liberty Reserve users a chance to reclaim any funds seized as part of the takedown, KrebsOnSecurity filed a claim shortly thereafter to see if and when this process might take place. This week, an investigator with the U.S. Internal Revenue service finally got in touch to discuss my claim. …

s0x • Austin Managed IT Services