Tag Archives: Wi-Fi

IRS helps enable online tax fraud

Posted on March 27, 2012 by jnelson

Your friends at the Internal Revenue Service are eager to get everyone to do their federal taxes online. But in their efforts to make everything quick and easy, they’ve wound up helping Internet tax scammers, too. And it’s not a phishing scheme or involves hacking, but is based on filing false online returns and collecting the refund. So this tax season, the government is warning people of the dangers. Identity thieves are very busy – last year, the IRS identified nearly a million fraudulent returns to the tune of $6.5 billion. Over half of these were related to identify theft, which is three times the amount of just three years before. And those are just the ones caught before any refunds had been issued. The IRS can’t, or won’t, even estimate how much money they’ve actually sent to scammers. Tax fraud has become an epidemic especially in areas like South Florida, with some gangs replacing drug sales and robberies with online crimes committed with iPads. Gangs even hold work parties to teach each other and commit hundreds of crimes in a single session. So many local officials are complaining about the lack of governmental concern and effective action. Working the fraud, authorities claim, is quite simple, and there are even written tutorials for thieves. The criminals first acquire victims’ Social Security numbers and other personal information. Perhaps they buy the data from insiders with access to medical or financial records or … Continue reading →

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Risks and Rewards of File Sharing

Posted on December 9, 2011 by jnelson

Often when people hear the term “peer-to-peer file sharing”, they think of torrents, illegal swapping of the latest movies and music, and resulting lawsuits by the record or movie industries for piracy.  That does happen; however, file sharing encompasses much more than ripping off the latest hits. Peer-to-Peer, or P2P, is the most widely used form of file sharing. It has become a big and growing part of the Internet, already accounting for 50-70% of consumer network traffic, with millions of P2P clients downloaded and in use.  In 2004, an estimated 70 million people were busily sharing files, and doubtless many more now. But P2P is not the only means to share files over the Net. It should not be confused with file hosting, which uses the more familiar client-server architecture of the Internet to stream files to users from big, centralized Web servers. In its purest form, Peer-to-Peer is strictly that: users’ computers directly linked across the Net to their peers; that is, other users’ computers.  They join in a network of equals, each machine devoting some fraction of its computing power, bandwidth, and memory to the network, ideally without any need for a central coordinator. In fact, P2P works pretty much the way the Web was originally intended to function. Collaborative computing Civilization is the story of how ever-larger tasks can be done, and done much more efficiently, with cooperation. As a form of collaborative computing between users, … Continue reading →

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Staying Safe with Wi-fi

Posted on October 12, 2011 by jnelson

Wi-Fi radio connections to the Internet at home, the office, and even in your local coffee shop are no longer a futuristic novelty but a convenience that many users rely upon every day. With ease, however, may come a very unrealistic feeling of safety. As you might suspect, broadcasting your personal data through the air is not without hazards. Consequences can be quite serious, like having your computer directly accessed by hackers, with your confidential information, documents, and credit card numbers stolen, or it being used for other illegal activities for which you might be blamed. It does happen. Recently, a panicked customer called in. He had received several serious DMCA complaints and threats from a giant media company that claimed he had illegally downloaded their content – either music or movies – and they had the right Internet address. Yet, the man hadn’t done anything wrong except to use his Wi-Fi at home wide open and unsecured. Some unscrupulous neighbor must have profited from his naivety. The customer’s still waiting to see if the complaining company will take further steps against him, but meanwhile one of our techs set him up with strong WPA security to prevent further stealthy theft of his connection. Basic Home and Office Defense Proper set up is critical. Most of the steps to protect your computer should be implemented from the moment when you first set it up for Wi-Fi. While it’s impossible to … Continue reading →

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