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Crap! My tax man called me last night...

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Bret

Bret

Yoda
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.... to tell me the bad news that his office was broken into over the weekend and of his computers where stolen along with his entire client list with all of our personal information. Like names, addresses, tax returns & our social security numbers etc.

Police think the burglars where just after all the computer hardware and not really targeting the personal information, because they left some of the older computers hardware. Thinking that if the reason behind the theft was identity theft – they’d of probably taken everything.

But regardless my tax guy decided to let all his customers know about the theft so we can take appropriate measures. Because there’s no telling who might end up with the old hard drives and someone might be able to retrieve that information and use it.

Oh well got’a start making some calls. A couple of friends recommended “Life Lock” who sends out fraud alerts/warnings to all of the credit bureaus.

God this sucks! What a way to ring in the new year! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
 
He keeps your stuff on a hard drive where people can get to it? Does he know what a thing called a "disc" is used for?
 
Bret said:
But regardless my tax guy decided to let all his customers know about the theft so we can take appropriate measures.
Click to expand...

California SB-1386 baby. "let all his customers know" hopefully is his intention and he isn't in trouble. If you don't encrypt your data containing customer data that includes ssn, drivers license info, credit card numbers, etc.... then you are liable for up to $500K to inform all customers of the breach.

welcome to my world Bret... I've spent a lot of time encrypting data on files that have been in place since the Ford administration that don't take kindly to encryption.
 
Steve that truly sucks. Lucky for me my tax man doesn't know 1 truthful thing about me!!!!!!!
 
I think you need a new tax guy, one who takes protection of private data seriously. It's easy to do--just keep it on a removable hard drive, and stick the drive in a safe at night. It should be backed up occasionally too, and the backup drive treated identically. A small hassle, but not prohibitive.

Also, keep in mind that your stuff can be stolen, too, so you shouldn't leave personal info on the machine without some kind of protection. One way is to put all your passwords and such in a password-protected excel file, then give the file a cryptic name and bury it somewhere on the machine. Not perfect security, but good enough to give you at least a few hours to lock down accounts.
 
What's a tax man? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

Frugal Tom
 
Taxes, do folks pay them? I thought when you were retired they went away.
 
I found out that I'll get taxed on my retirement checks.
That seems totaly outragous.

- Doug
 
Yea, but let me tell ya from 18 years experience, retirement is great.
 
Yep, there's only 1 problem with retirement.....

....you have to wait too long to enjoy it! Why can't we retire when we're 22 & start our careers when we're 62?
 
I'm only 40 and already planning.
 
Bret,


Be very concerned if your tax man gives you
a collect call from the Bahamas.

- Doug
 
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