Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
Phishing Emails Have Become Very Stealthy. Here Are 5 Ways to Spot Them Every Time
Inc: “Phishing scams are nothing new. In fact, we’ve all heard about the “Nigerian prince” phishing emails that have been showing up in inboxes for years. Unfortunately, phishing attacks continue to increase exponentially in volume, and are considered a serious threat to both companies and individual internet users since they can result in devastating financial losses. In addition, phishing emails can be much harder to recognize than many business owners think. Cybercriminals have resorted to increasingly sophisticated phishing strategies as of late to get recipients to open, click, and share malicious code. And these tactics are paying off handsomely. Business email compromise (BEC) scams are more successful than ever, with losses reaching $2.7 billion in 2018. Here are some common phishing trends that business owners should know about and tips for educating employees about them…”
“Wang Zhi … says he can make a tidy 2m yuan ($290,000) a year from his cross-dressing routines. … He regularly appears on nationally televised variety shows. Officials often invite him to entertain people in poor areas.” And why does Xi Jinping’s increasingly conservative government tolerate this? Wang Zhi and his fellows do drag Beijing opera-style. – The Economist
Equifax data breach settlement: How to
file a claim for $125 or free credit reporting
USAToday: “If you were affected by the 2017 Equifax data
breach, you can now file a claim for a piece of the settlement. The
credit-reporting company has agreed to pay between $575 million and $700
million to settle state and federal investigations related to a massive
security incident that exposed the personal information of more than 147
million Americans two years ago. The settlement, which was announced Monday and is considered
the largest ever for a data breach, has preliminary court approval. The
official settlement website, www.equifaxbreachsettlement.com,
has been posted and is accepting claims. To confirm you’re eligible
to file a claim, enter your last name and the last six digits of your
Social Security number on the site or call the Settlement Administrator at
1-833-759-2982…”
·After providing
your last name and last six digits of you social security number – bingo – [Based on the information you provided, our
records indicate your personal information was impacted by this incident.]
For more information, visit the FAQ page. [Just saying – the breach occurred 2
years ago and $125 in no way compensates anyone for the permanent loss of
critical “personal data.”] ATO tax return: What it’s like to be audited by Australian Taxation Office
IRS Sending Letters to Taxpayers with Potential Taxable Virtual Currency Transactions
In IR-2019-132,here, the IRS announced that it is "sending letters to taxpayers with virtual currency transactions that potentially failed to report income and pay the resulting tax from virtual currency transactions or did not report their transactions properly." By the end of August, the notice says, more than 10,000 taxpayers will receive the letters
