 In total revenue service, IRS tax news. These security guidelines can help keep personal info safe online. Oh, I see. So the IRS is going to help us safeguard our personal data now, huh? Yeah, this coming from the largest phishing data collection scamming organization ever. I mean, the IRS has collected so much personal data, it makes Mark Zuckerberg's face blush. As if hit with a book, a big book, like the tax code or something. You know, I think the IRS just doesn't want other people getting our personal info because then the IRS like loses leverage over us, you know, like with the data that they have on us and everything. I mean, on the whole world's a bunch of scamming, data stealing, blackmailing, sons of... That's it. I'm going off grid, man. I'm going off grid. I'm going to live off the fat of the land because Mother Earth, she's a large lady and could totally spare some fat. Plus, if Mother Earth lost a little fat, she may be able to deal with the whole global warming thing better due to being more fit. So, like, my living off Mother Earth's fat is probably saving the planet, man. I'm kind of like Superman over here, but enough about my noble plans to save the world along with my personal data first to joke. What's that, Phil? We're all screwed because science retired. Nothing any of us can do. We're all screwed. Resulting in an age of no science? We're booking flights. We're leaving because of witches. Welcome to the New Dark Ages. That's not true, Phil. That's not... Dr. Fauci is not actually science incarnate, no matter how many times he claims to be. Are you gay? No, no. But I shoot rockets into his face. No, Phil. It's not because he passed on the title of being science itself to somebody else. Who is king here? I mean, that's ridiculous. I remind you so you remember that. You can't pass on the title of being science itself. I don't remember anything except that you're on my side. Honestly, where do you get your information, Phil? MSNBC? Who told you that? Alexa said that your Alexa had some info on things. Also, now our Alexa's are talking. Great. I mean, can't you step it up a bit and at least start getting informed by, like, TikTok? Oh, I see, Phil. TikTok is the platform that helped you realize you were actually a furry. Today made me realize it's time for me to follow my true destiny. Your true essence being that of a ferret. Oh, no. Not this again. Yes, Francine. This again. Honestly, you can't be a ferret, Phil. You can't be like a human ferret. I don't care how much you feel like you're a ferret. I feel like a goldfish. How did you even come up with being a ferret anyways? Have you ever even seen a ferret? How did you come up with this idea? It was there. Oh, I see. It's because it sounded cool. Phil the furry ferret. Look at this one. It's saying, I'm a coffee table. Put some coffee on me. Oh, the hotter the better. That's what I'm here for. And the fact that it sounds cool must be a sign. Honestly, I mean, it's not scientifically possible for you to be a human ferret, Phil. That's not possible. We're talking about human cells here, not isolinear circuits. I think you better stick to engineering, Lieutenant. Yes, I remember that you told me science has retired. I'm telling you, talking to you is like torture. Ugh, this is torture. And I've talked kindergarten in hell for 9,000 years. IRS tax tip 2022-179, November 22nd, 2022. Taking online security seriously can help people keep their information safe and out of the hands of identity thieves and scammers. It only takes a few simple steps to avoid common security pitfalls. There's a link to that here. By following these tips, consumers and taxpayers can reduce the risk of losing their identity money or accounts to criminals. Always protect personal information, personal data that is. Personal information can include things like birthdays, addresses, age and social security numbers. Now, obviously the social security number is one that we've always been taught. We've got to keep that safeguarded. It might be a little bit more difficult to be safeguarding things like birthdays and so on, because birthdays we might be sharing and you might have shared this kind of stuff on social media. Note that's probably not the best idea because that kind of information is the kind of information that can be used to be filling out tax returns. Or to try to basically get into other accounts because that's going to be backup information that could be used. However, if someone did a more extensive search on basically anybody these days, you would think that somewhere they would be able to pull up the birthdays, the addresses and the age at this point in time, given the fact that those things have been static through the entire life. And we've been coming up with more complex and integrated systems online that can easily pick that stuff up. And at this point, even the social security number you would think is becoming more and more difficult to keep safeguarded given the fact that it's the same your whole life. And again, you're given it to multiple institutions. So I kind of feel like it's a little unfair, in other words, when basically if someone fills out a fraudulent tax return and the IRS says, well, you just didn't safeguard your information well enough, right? Like a birthday or an address. It's almost impossible to not have that information out on the interwebs in some way. You would think at some point in time that the social security number, we might change it on a year every year or something like that. You would think a system like that might make things more secure, although more problematic. So bottom line is clearly you do want to not just be posting the birthdays and addresses and whatnot on Facebook or anything, but you also don't want to be overly stressed out with it as well. So you've got to be able to know the fact that that kind of data, if someone was intense to look for it, would probably be there and then take other precautions given the fact that if that's the case, then what other precautions can you take as well? Possibly get another IPP in for the tax code and stuff. So in any case, people should only provide their data when necessary and after verifying the identity of the questioner. If someone requests personal or financial information, taxpayers should verify their request separately. For government employees, this could include contacting the agency or visiting the agency's website. Only shop at reputable retailers. Everyone should shop at reputable online retailers. People should only shop on secure sites. Avoid any websites with invalid certificates. The letters HTTPS, so up top that little padlock indicates that it's on the HTTPS, which is supposed to be a more secure website. So that's at least one thing you don't really want. If it just says HTTP, then my understanding is it's going to be less secure and you certainly don't want to be buying things from that website most likely. So do not mean that the website is legitimate since criminals can simply purchase valid SSL certificates and attach them to fraudulent websites. So in other words, the fact that it has an HTTPS or a padlock shouldn't give you full security. Like, oh, well, this website's legit. I'm going to buy from them, given the fact just because they got an HTTPS. But you certainly would think that if they don't have the HTTPS, they don't have the S or the padlock, that that would not be a good sign and therefore you wouldn't typically want to use that at all generally. So use security software. People should make sure their security software such as antivirus and firewalls are always turned on and automatically updated. They should regularly back up and encrypt sensitive files stored on computers. Sensitive files include things like tax records, school transcripts and college applications. They should also be sure all family members have comprehensive antivirus protection for their devices, particularly on shared devices. So choose strong passwords and two-factor authentication. They should use strong, unique passwords for each account and enable two-factor authentication for online accounts where possible. So notice the strong passwords becomes more and more difficult given the fact that, one, they're difficult to memorize and, two, we're going to have a whole lot of passwords these days and we want different passwords for all the different things that you might be using. So therefore the way to do that is you might be able to use like a password application and that might be a way to kind of be able to use these stronger passwords and still be able to handle it without driving you completely crazy or having sheets of paper that you're changing all the time or something like that. So that's something that might be looked into. There's pros and cons to it, of course. Then you've got all your passwords in this location and you can look at research it so you can see what the pros and cons are of it, but that's an option. People should never share their password with anyone. Know the risk of a public Wi-Fi. Connection to public Wi-Fi is convenient and often free, but it may not be safe. Criminals can easily steal personal information from these networks. So it's kind of information that's kind of interesting, I mean, that these public Wi-FIs, like when they first came out before they did the HTTPS, then it was quite clear that people could kind of steal your information and whatnot. And obviously, I still would recommend not going to a public Wi-Fi. I don't feel secure going to the public Wi-Fi, but some of the stuff I've been looking in up to it on it seems to suggest that since they got the HTTPS and so on, then there's still some information that someone might be able to get from you on the public Wi-Fi, but it might not be as big of an issue as it was before the HTTPS was there. And so now criminals might be kind of going to other, they can probably do more damage from not being on the same Wi-Fi these days, right? They might be moving on to other scams at this point in time rather than trying to just hang out in like the coffee shop, right? But again, I wouldn't trust the Wi-Fi and I'm not an expert on this stuff at all. So people should always use a virtual private network when connecting to public Wi-Fi. So that's something that clearly everyone is pretty common knowledge. If you look into this at all is that if you're on the public Wi-Fi, then you might be connecting to the node on your home, for example. So that's usually when that VPN becomes a more relevant safeguard. So learn to recognize and avoid scams. Everyone should be aware of common scams. So criminals use phishing emails, threatening phone calls and texts, suppose as IRS employees or other legitimate government or law enforcement agencies. People should remember to never click on links or download attachments from unknown or suspicious emails. So be aware of comprehensive, of compromised accounts. Once a criminal has hacked an email or social media account, they may try to scam the victim's contacts by posing as the victim. So probably most of us have received something like this where you get an email or a contact or a face message or something from somebody that you know they're trying to scam us, trying to get credibility by using someone else's account that they hacked to send you something or they can even spoof the email. They can even not hack it and just spoof the email. So we've got to be aware of that now. So everyone should be suspicious of unusual out-of-character requests or messages even when the account belongs to a friend, a colleague or family member. More information below. We've got publication 4524, Security Awareness for Taxpayers, Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft. There's links to those items here. There'll be a link to this in the description.