uThe IRS Is Still Using Windows XP, Has A Cybersecurity Staff Of 363 Peopler

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  (afagen)

  In the last few years, tax return fraud has become a serious problem at the state and federal levels, thanks to the growth of e-filing and security holes in IRS and third-party tax software systems. Is the IRS to blame for this trend? There are really only two options: the IRS is either broke or incompetent.

  CNN puts it in slightly different terms, asking whether the agency is broke or unable to allocate the budget that it has to protect all of the data that it collects about us. The agency has 10% fewer employees than it did five years ago, but processes more tax returns and also has even more work since the Affordable Care Act was implemented, processing health insurance information and assessing penalties when needed.

  While maybe better technology could help the IRS finish more work quickly, there’s a catch: they still have computers running 13-year-old Windows XP, and even their fraud-catching software is two decades old. The agency employs fewer cybersecurity staff than it used to, even as one would think the demand would go up as e-filing has become more popular.

  At the same time, the “incompetent” thing might also apply: a new anti-fraud program was supposed to be finished three years ago, and is late and over-budget. Congress is still punishing the agency for what some members of Congress consider “lavish” spending in recent years on things like conferences and training videos. However, when it’s innocent taxpayers who end up with their identities stolen and their tax refund sent to the other side of the world, that punishment is affecting the wrong people.

  Is the IRS too broke to protect your info? [CNN Money]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uSally Beauty: Investigation Confirms Customer Payment Info May Have Been Put At Risk, But Not Debit PINsr

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  (JeepersMedia)

  Three weeks after Sally Beauty first said it was looking into whether it’d been the victim of a hack attack, the company says it’s confirmed that criminals used malware on some of its point-of-sale systems, possibly exposing payment information for customers who used cards at some of its U.S. stores.

  Criminals deployed the malware at certain stores during “varying times” between March 6 and April 17, the company said in a press release, though it’s unclear how many stores or how many customers were affected.

  Although payment information may have been at risk for some customers, Sally Beauty says it has “no reason to believe, and has no information to suggest that debit card PINs may have been impacted.”

  It says it’s eliminated the malware from all Sally Beauty point-of-sale systems.

  “We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused our customers, and we want to reassure them that protecting our customers is our priority,” said Chris Brickman, President and CEO in the press release, adding that because the company “cannot pinpoint exactly which cards might have been affected during our reported date range,” it’s offering credit card monitoring services to anyone who used a credit or debit card at Sally Beauty store between March 6 and April 17.

  Customers who wish to take advantage of the free identity protection services can go to sallybeautyholdings.com; call 1-866-234-9442 or email customerserviceinquiry@sallybeauty.com.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uThis McDonald’s Asks Drive-Thru Customers To Bend The Laws Of Physicsr

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• McDonald’s is trying all kinds of new things to attract younger customers and sling fries at them, but we’re not so sure about their plan to increase drive-thru traffic in the United Kingdom by bending the laws of physics. “Please use both lanes to place your order,” a new sign says. Both?

  An Alert Twitter user somewhere in the UK shared this confusing notice while visiting only one of the drive-thru lanes.

  @daraobriain McDonalds drive thru now suggesting we order using Quantum Theory? #quantumdrivethru http://pic.twitter.com/LEotITZ7pg

  — Nick Cook (@hockeynick13) May 28, 2015

  Yes, yes, we know what the sign is supposed to mean, but that has never stopped us from following an amusing premise through to a conclusion. Perhaps there is a hole in the universe centered on this McDonald’s that allows customers to be in two places at once, doubling drive-thru revenue. Seems like a waste of a perfectly nice wormhole.

  Of course, bending the laws of physics is nothing new in marketing: there were the curtains that somehow block more than 100% of light and gravity-proof soup. None of these lead to bilocation, though.

  McDonald’s defy quantum physics with sign

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uMan Named God Reaches Settlement With Equifax, Finally Gets A Credit Scorer

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  ([RAWRZ!])

  You might recall a story from about a year back where a man with the first name “God” had a little dispute with credit-reporting agency Equifax, namely that the company wouldn’t recognize his moniker as legitimate. He’s now come out on top in his battle with Equifax, which has agreed he and his financial history do exist, and have granted him a shiny new credit score.

  The Russian native and Brooklyn resident sued the credit-reporting agency last year in federal court claiming that the snag in his Equifax report that rejects his first name has kept him from buying a car, despite his credit scores of more than 720 at other agencies. He claimed a customer service representative even suggested he change his first name to make everything easier.

  The New York Post reports that God and Equifax have reached a settlement where Equifax has agreed to enter his name into its database, as well as giving him an undisclosed payout.

  With his new healthy credit score, God says he’s relieved the case has been settled and is planning to buy a BMW to celebrate.

  “It’s been five years of this,” he told the NYP. “I’m glad that it’s over.”

  His lawyer adds that Equifax actually added God’s name to its database when he took legal action last year, but that the financial part of the settlement took longer to finalize.

  Equifax did not comment to the NYP.

  Man named God settles lawsuit with credit agency [New York Post]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uIf You Have $100M To Spare, Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch Could Be Yoursr

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  (basykes)

  If you don’t know who Bubbles the Chimpanzee was, you should probably just stop reading now. For the rest of you who may have a spare $100 million burning a hole in your pocket, Michael Jackson’s famed Neverland Ranch is on the market under a new name.

  Sycamore Valley Ranch, as the late Jackson’s estate is now called, no longer has carnival rides or primate pals, but the floral clock still spells “Neverland” by the train station ands its train tracks, and a llama lives on the property, reports the Wall Street Journal.

  All told, the property has about 22 structures on its 2,700 acres, with the six-bedroom house with attached staff quarters measuring 12,000 square feet.

  Then there are all the things associated with celebrity homes: A swimming pool with a cabana, a basketball court and a tennis court, a 50-seat movie theater with a private viewing balcony and a place for magic shows — do we really need to go on? Michael Jackson lived here, it’s super expensive — you get it.

  Don’t think you can just waltz in and get a free tour, however, as the listing agents say there will be “extensive prequalification” of anyone looking to buy before they show the property.

  Michael Jackson’s Onetime Neverland Lists for $100 Million [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uAmerican Credit Cards Are Most Popular In The World For Hacks, Fraud (Because Our Tech Stinks)r

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  (frankieleon)

  
  If it feels like we hear a whole lot of stories about retail data breaches here in the U.S., well, that’s because we do. Americans are super duper popular targets for card hacks and fraud, and it’s for one simple reason: our credit card security is bad and should feel bad.

  Quartz reports this week on a new report from British-based international megabank Barclays, and it’s bad news for consumers on this side of the Atlantic.

  American credit cards represent about a quarter — 24% — of all cards in use in the world. But when it comes to fraud, American cards represent nearly half — 47% — of cards that have been subject to fraud.

  The main culprit is one we’ve covered many times before: in the U.S., where magnetic stripe technology is still the dominant way payment cards are accepted, we are vulnerable to software incursions and theft. Simply put, we are low-hanging fruit. Intruding into a system like Target or Home Depot and making off with usable data for tens of millions of payment cards is easy as pie, at least as compared to other nations.

  And that is, of course, because other nations have long since switched to more secure, EMV (chip-using) credit and debit cards. The EMV system doesn’t completely eliminate the potential for card fraud, but it does make it much harder to do.

  Worldwide, Barclays reports, chip-card adoption sits at about 43% — but that doesn’t include the U.S. In Western Europe, most nations have long since gone through the conversion process and the adoption rate sits at almost 82%. Since starting the transition to chip-and-PIN cards in 2003, the U.K. has seen an over 70% reduction in payment card fraud.

  Here in the states we are finally on our way to joining the rest of the world, but it’s a slow process happening one bank and one retailer at a time, rather than something with a firm, government-imposed deadline. Originally MasterCard and Visa were to require merchants to upgrade to having chip-enabled payment systems by October of this year, but that deadline has since shifted another two years into the future.

  One only wonders how many 50 million card megabreaches American consumers will see between now and then.

  Americans are, by far, hackers’ favorite credit-card fraud targets [Quartz]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uThinkGeek Parent Geeknet Giving Hot Topic Three Days To Match Rival Suitor’s Offerr

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• The love triangle between the parent company of online retailer ThinkGeek and its two suitors continues to heat up, with Geeknet now telling original suitor Hot Topic it has until Monday to match or exceed the higher bid from a new mystery rival. Because like so many real life dating situations, it all comes down to an ultimatum.

  The choice facing Hot Topic now is whether to top the unnamed rival’s offer of $20 per share — after originally offering $17.50 a share — or walk away, ostensibly broken-hearted and ready to hit the booze and ice cream aisles hard.

  Geeknet noted then that its board of directors still has to approve the undisclosed suitor’s offer. Today the company says in a statement [PDF]that while it hasn’t changed its recommendation in favor of the Hot Topic buyout, the new bid is a superior deal and Hot Topic has just three days to match it.

  While Geeknet says it’s required and “intends to” negotiate in “good faith with Hot Topic” during the match period, which lasts until Monday, June 1 at 9 a.m., iff the board determines then that the new suitor’s offer continues to be a superior proposal, the company says that under its agreement with Hot Topic it’ll be required to pay a 3% break-up fee. In that event, Geeknet says its new bidder has agreed to reimburse the company for paying that fee.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist