Month: February 2017

Amazon resists request for Echo info in Arkansas slaying–AP

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Amazon is resisting an effort by Arkansas prosecutors to obtain potential recordings from a slaying suspect’s Amazon Echo smart speaker, saying authorities haven’t established that their investigation is more important than a customer’s privacy rights.

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Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself–IRS

  Security Summit Reminder: Dangerous W-2 Phishing Scam Evolving: Targets Schools, Restaurants, Hospitals, Tribal Groups

Help spread the word to your clients: The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry recently issued an urgent alert to all employers that the Form W-2 email phishing scam has evolved beyond the corporate world and is spreading to other sectors, including school districts, tribal organizations and nonprofits. The Summit partners continue to receive reports of this scheme. 

For information on how to guard against identity theft, visit Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself.

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Are Legal Incubators the Best Way to Start A Solo Practice? | Above the Law

By CAROLYN ELEFANT

Ever since I learned about concept of the Legal Incubator , about a decade ago, I’ve been intrigued. For those unfamiliar, legal incubators — the brainchild of ABA Legal Rebel and law professor Fred Rooney — first launched about a decade ago based on a simple but utterly ingenious concept: the incubators provide new law grads with subsidized or free office space, amenities, training and mentorship — and in exchange, these new lawyers commit to providing low-bono legal services. At the end of the program (the durations seem to vary from one to two years), the incubators unleash these now experienced lawyers out into the world to start their own practices.

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Read the memos signed by DHS Secretary Kelly on new guidelines for deporting illegal immigrants–WaPo

In a pair of memos, John F. Kelly Sworn [sic] offered more detail on plans for the agency to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand the pool of immigrants who are prioritized for removal, speed up deportation hearings and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests.

Read the memos…

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48 Questions the FBI Uses to Determine if Someone Is a Likely Terrorist

Cora Currier, Murtaza Hussain

FOR THE PAST year and a half, the FBI has been using a secret scoring system to judge the likelihood that someone will carry out a violent attack. The survey, called “Indicators of Mobilization to Violence,” assigns points based on factors like religious observance, travel history, financial transactions, and physical appearance.

A copy of the survey in a classified FBI document was obtained by The Intercept.

The survey itself consists of 48 questions that agents are supposed to answer about terror suspects as part of an investigation. The document also includes a set of frequently asked questions about the scoring system aimed at agents working counterterrorism investigations.

According to the document, the program was rolled out in the fall of 2015.

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Bought a couch? Need a truck? Try Truxx

Matt Steecker , ithacajournal.com | @MSteecker

Buying large merchandise at a store is never a pleasant experience, especially for those who don’t have a vehicle with plenty of cargo space.

Now a Syracuse man, partnered with two Broome County entrepreneurs, have fledgling company ready to solve the problem.

The story of Truxx, a truck-sharing delivery app  — think U-Haul meets Uber  — began when its now-CEO Carlos Suarez bought a 40-inch TV from a Target in Syracuse about two years ago.

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Trump considered Nat Guard for immigration roundups–Associated Press Interactive

The Trump administration weighed a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to this draft memo obtained by the Associated Press.

The full text of the document may be seen by clicking here…

Associated Press scored a big scoop Friday morning on a draft memo.

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Security Summit Alert: New Scam Aims to “Unlock” Tax Pro Software Accounts

The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today warned tax professionals to be alert to a new phishing email scam impersonating software providers. 

The scam email comes with the subject line, “Access Locked.” It tells recipients that access to their tax prep software accounts has been “suspended due to errors in your security details.” The scam email asks the tax professional to address the issue by using an “unlock” link provided in the email. 

 

However, the link will take the tax professional to a fake web page, where they are asked to enter their user name and password. Instead of unlocking accounts, the tax professionals actually are inadvertently providing their information to cybercriminals who use the stolen credentials to access the preparers’ accounts and to steal client information.

 

The Security Summit partners remind tax professionals to never open a link or an attachment from a suspicious email. These scams can increase during the tax season. 

 

For tax professionals who receive emails purportedly from their tax software providers suggesting their accounts have been suspended, they should send those scam emails to their tax software provider. For Windows users, please this process to help the investigation of these scam emails:

 

    1. Use “Save As” to save the scam. Under “save as type” in the drop down menu, select “plain text” and save to your desk top. Do not click on any links
    2. Open a new email and attach this saved email as a file
    3. Send your new email containing the attachment your tax software provider, as well as copy Phishing@IRS.gov. 

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Shift

SHIFT

SCIENCE

tryshift.com

These days, many email users have more than one Gmail account. This can make things a bit tricky when users try to take advantage of Google’s productivity and document sharing features, such as Google Drive and Google Calendar. Shift is a desktop application that enables users to quickly and easily switch between Gmail accounts. For example, users can check the Google Calendar on their personal Gmail account while using Google Docs on their professional email account. Shift also provides users with desktop notifications so they can stay up-to-date about new messages, events, or shared materials on both of their accounts. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, Shift offers a free Basic account for users to toggle between two Gmail/Inbox/Outlook accounts. Users interested in simultaneously using three or more email accounts have the option of purchasing Shift Pro.

Copyright © 2017 Internet Scout Research Group – http://scout.wisc.edu

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Internet Archive offers to host PACER for free–fedscoop.com

Samantha Ehlinger

Anybody looking to access federal court records electronically has to slog through a difficult-to-use site that charges 10 cents per pageview, but a prominent nonprofit digital library says it wants to make that information available for free.

The Internet Archive told a House subcommittee this week that it wants to give the public easier access to the documents in the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service, known as PACER.

In a letter sent to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet before a hearing held Tuesday, the Internet Archive said it “would be delighted to archive and host–for free, forever, and without restriction on access to the public–all records contained in PACER.”

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