The ACM Security Summit – A Review
The following article is published under the byline on behalf of the American Society for Network and Computer Security and the IEEE Communications Society. | Source: ACM: The American Journal of Information Management. By Aaron Pfeiffer, Associate Director, The Information Security Section, ACM, 2015/01/08. Article Abstract The Association of Computing Machinery on May 22, 2015, hosted a security summit in New York City. The summit brought together a diverse group of companies and people for discussions on topics like cyber security, compliance, and the business of information security. The summit also included three separate conference calls which were open to all attendees. The purpose of these calls was to identify areas where attendees could take advantage of a business strategy to reduce information security incidents. Several topics were identified as key areas where attendees could develop business-centric information security operations and processes. In this paper, we describe the call that was held on the topic “Compliance at the Speed of Thought”: a comprehensive look at a strategic process, using an event-driven and case study-based framework. The paper also highlights areas where attendees could improve information security operations, including: (1) leveraging security data in a business environment; (2) developing business security case scenarios based on actual incidents; (3) identifying trends in data availability and usage. This will enable IT professionals to identify areas of business risk for security, which can be used in a business-centric information security plan, and to determine what gaps and priorities IT should address.
IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig urged tax professionals to stay on the lookout for signs of identity theft.
In response to the tax year 2016 tax return fraud and identity theft issues, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner recently expressed concern that many financial professionals are becoming concerned about their own personal security due to this issue.
On December 19, the U. Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on the federal tax return fraud and identity theft issues, where they asked tax professionals to share their ideas for addressing this issue and to discuss the implications of tax return fraud and identity theft for the nation’s financial sector.
In particular, the committee heard from tax professionals who were concerned about their own personal security from a perspective that has not changed throughout the years. They all discussed how their companies were affected by the increased popularity of internet transactions and the high-risk nature of online transactions. Some also shared concerns about the potential for tax fraud to happen if their company became aware of suspicious activities within their company.
According to a recent study by the Internal Revenue Service Department of Investigations, since 2010 the number of tax return fraud cases involving over $25 million in fraud loss has increased by 300 percent. By the same token, the number of tax return cases involving identity theft has increased by 400 percent.
This situation was described as a “growing problem” by the IRS Commissioner, who made the following statement upon hearing of the study.
“What we are seeing in the tax return fraud statistics is an increased number of individuals who are using identity theft as a means to obtain financial services. In particular, the fraudsters are using online tax preparation services such as TurboTax to obtain tax refunds.
“As you know, we are seeing the increase of fraudulent tax preparation and refund accounts that are used to obtain cash refunds or pay individuals or businesses to get their refunds. The fraud comes in many forms – fraudulent tax filing, identity theft, fraudulent refunds, and fraudulent bank accounts.
As the Commissioner noted, “this is concerning for several reasons: first and foremost, it has the potential to affect our entire tax filing system, and in turn, our economy as a whole.
“It is an increasing problem and one that involves all aspects of our lives in terms of our financial and our personal lives. What we are seeing is that the fraud is most often occurring online.
; Response to emails, which the Tax Pro didn’t send ;
An internal server crash in 2007, combined with the incompetence of tax staff, led to more than $11m in losses for the Government Treasury department. Despite numerous reports of this, the Treasury failed to investigate the matter. A team of security researchers took a closer look at what happened in 2007 and determined that the Treasury Department had been working against its own staff policies for years. The researchers found the damage from this: a number of taxpayers saw their taxable income tripled, and an even larger number suffered losses.
About 3m Canadians owed tax.
About $10+ billion worth of revenue.
Some $11m in losses in 2008, most of which were tax losses.
About 3m Canadians owed tax.
About $10+ billion worth of revenue.
Some $11m in losses in 2008, most of which were tax losses.
In addition, taxpayers lost the opportunity to receive the same tax relief they were entitled to through the CRA’s Special Interest Rate, which allows taxpayers to claim a lower rate of tax for certain investments.
In 2007, the CRA set the Special Interest Rate to expire at the end of 2007. This allowed Canadian taxpayers to get an additional 4. 4 per cent off their income in 2007, just before their rate of tax and tax credits were reduced.
The CRA was aware that taxpayers had incurred tax losses. A staff member of the CRA’s Financial Intelligence and Taxing Branch had been informed of the situation in December 2007. The CRA’s Financial Intelligence and Taxing Branch then met with the Tax Security Unit. As part of the investigation into the crash, the Tax Security Unit provided a report that detailed the circumstances surrounding the 2007 tax losses, the circumstances leading to the losses, and their costs. This report was to be submitted to the Financial Intelligence and Taxing Branch in February 2008.
However, because of the internal server crashes, the Tax Security Unit was unable to get the required file to the Finance and Audit Section of the Fiscal Policy Division. As a result of this, the FIBT report was submitted to Finance and Audit in April 2008.
IRS Disabled Online Account –
The IRS Disabled Online Account (DOVA) is an online account which is set up on the IRS’ website to collect personal information such as tax refunds, tax returns, credit card payments, and government information from qualified tax filers. DOVA is used to facilitate illegal immigration. For example, when someone requests a government benefit online, such as food stamps or Medicaid, they can use their DOVA to collect the requested information and submit the online form to the IRS. This could allow them to evade payment of their taxes, claiming it is a legitimate government benefit. With this type of online tax evasion, the fraudsters who set up these types of online tax evasion accounts can commit serious crimes.
This article explains how the IRS has enabled its agents to be able to track and locate accounts, including the DOVA accounts. An IRS-related article that explains how the IRS is targeting these accounts in a federal criminal investigation is also included.
The IRS is not alone in this task and has been using its vast resources and network of technology to enable its agents to locate and follow accounts and tax returns. Recently, the IRS has been using virtual network-based analysis (VNAA), an increasingly popular cyber-forensic practice, to identify and follow accounts.
VNAA is an analysis method used to map cyber threats using network traffic to identify patterns in the network’s traffic. The IRS is a frequent target of VNAA analysis. In 2013, the IRS reported it discovered that a hacker was using VNAA to find IRS accounts and their corresponding tax returns. The IRS has also been a target of VNAA analysis due to the large amount of data it collects from its customers.
Tips of the Day in Network Security
Today’s article is in response to the latest security breach that was released on Tuesday, which exposed information related to several financial institutions.
In this post, we will discuss how social engineering attacks are employed by a threat actor to compromise a target’s network.
In a social engineering attack, the target is the actor itself and, consequently, the attack is carried out at the target’s network through email messages and other social media profiles. In addition, a malicious actor can leverage the target’s IT infrastructure, e. , servers, cloud servers, and routers.
When selecting a target, one must consider several factors. First, the threat actor must understand the target’s IT infrastructure and how it works. For example, an attacker might use a command-and-control infrastructure like a cloud service provider. Next, an attacker must decide if the target supports a local or remote configuration. Lastly, an attacker must decide if the target has access to the target’s network resources.
Related Posts:
Spread the loveThe following article is published under the byline on behalf of the American Society for Network and Computer Security and the IEEE Communications Society. | Source: ACM: The American Journal of Information Management. By Aaron Pfeiffer, Associate Director, The Information Security Section, ACM, 2015/01/08. Article Abstract The Association of Computing Machinery on May…