Cautionary Tales Tim Harford - Data scraped from 500 million LinkedIn users found for sale online

Tax experts Mark Leibler and... - Australian Taxation Office | Facebook

Tax experts Mark Leibler and Michael Bersten join ATO Deputy Commissioners Michael Cranston and Greg Williams to discuss what we' re doing ...

ATO powers: The Australian responds to Mark Leibler’s Tax Institute speech

23 March 2018

Taxation 

In today’s Australian, business columnist Robert Gottliebsen responds to Arnold Bloch Leibler Senior Partner Mark Leibler’s address at last week’s Tax Institute National Convention.

In his keynote address to an audience over 350 people at the Tax Institute’s 33rd National Convention, Mark Leibler put a spotlight on the extraordinary powers of the ATO and the Commissioner of Taxation. He told an audience of 350 tax professionals from across Australia that to represent clients to the best of their abilities, advisers need to recognise the vast power that rests with the Commissioner and his empire to interpret and apply the law.

Referring to Mark’s comments about the far-reaching powers of the ATO, Robert Gottliebsen agrees: “There are few better lawyers in Australia over the last half-century than Mark Leibler so if he says that I am sure it is right. I knew the ATO powers were wide but I did not know they were that wide. They are beyond the rule of law.

“I think it is important for all the politicians in Canberra to understand these powers”.

Robert goes on to argue that – given the ATO’s powers - small businesses need “the same rights as the large end of town - access to an independent appeal body that they can afford” to appeal against ATO decisions, making the suggestion that the Inspector-General of Taxation be that body.

To read the full article, click here, and to read a transcript of Mark’s keynote address, click here.

“We have seen the effects of cyber-security breaches on businesses and government agencies close at hand,” Mr Preston said. “Jamie’s addition to the firm significantly bolsters our cyber and risk advisory capability.

“We look forward to the contribution he will make to improving cyber resilience across our client base.”

Advisory firm snares former ATO assistant commissioner McGrathNicol has appointed former ATO assistant commissioner Jamie Norton as a Canberra-based partner.

Tim Hartford’s recommendations for top podcasts, tweets, videos and anything else that makes economics fun.

From the geeks who took over poker to the nuclear safety experts who want to prevent the next banking meltdown, these are Tim’s favourite long-form articles.

Cautionary Tales My podcast, telling true stories about mistakes and what we should learn from them.

Data scraped from 500 million LinkedIn users found for sale online

Tech Republic: “A massive trove of LinkedIn account data has been found for sale online, containing 500 million user records including email addresses, phone numbers, links to other social media profiles and professional details Reported by CyberNews researchers, the leak was posted to a forum popular with hackers by a user asking for a “four-digit $$$$ minimum price” for access to the full database of stolen account information.  To prove the legitimacy of the info, the leaker included two million records as a sample that users on the form can view for $2 worth of forum-specific credits. CyberNews researchers were able to confirm that the data contained in the sample was legitimate, but added that ” it’s unclear whether the threat actor is selling up-to-date LinkedIn profiles, or if the data has been taken or aggregated from a previous breach suffered by LinkedIn or other companies.”  Included in the leaked data was “a variety of mostly professional information,” including LinkedIn IDs, full names, email addresses, phone numbers, user gender, links to LinkedIn profiles, links to other connected social media profiles, professional titles and other work-related data. Allegedly, the leaked data doesn’t appear to contain any credit card or other financial details, or legal documents that could be used for fraud… ;-)”

Another huge data breach, another stony silence from Facebook Guardian

Pew Research Center – “A majority of Americans say they use YouTube and Facebook, while use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok is especially common among adults under 30. Despite a string of controversies and the public’s relatively negative sentiments about aspects of social media, roughly seven-in-ten Americans say they ever use any kind of social media site – a share that has remained relatively stable over the past five years, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults. Beyond the general question of overall social media use, the survey also covers use of individual sites and apps. YouTube and Facebook continue to dominate the online landscape, with 81% and 69%, respectively, reporting ever using these sites. And YouTube and Reddit were the only two platforms measured that saw statistically significant growth since 2019, when the Center last polled on this topic via a phone survey. When it comes to the other platforms in the survey, 40% of adults say they ever use Instagram and about three-in-ten report using Pinterest or LinkedIn. One-quarter say they use Snapchat, and similar shares report being users of Twitter or WhatsApp. TikTok – an app for sharing short videos – is used by 21% of Americans, while 13% say they use the neighborhood-focusedplatform Nextdoor…”