Online tax filings expected to rise
It’s tax time, and the latest estimate from Consumer Internet Barometer is that 40 percent of U.S. taxpayers will file their returns online, up from 34 percent three years ago.
“Given the many online tax filing alternatives and payment options, such as IRS E-file, Free File and direct deposit options, it’s not surprising that every year an increasing number of consumers are filing electronically,” says Lynn Franco, of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. The Consumer Internet Barometer surveys 10,000 households across the country and tracks who’s doing what on the Internet.
More consumers are comfortable filing their taxes online, compared with other financial transactions.
The fource is with them
Microsoft Corp. has resurrected an online effort to reach bright computer users in the 3-to-12 age bracket.
It’s relaunched a site called Source Fource, along with a series of action figures.
The link is http://msdn.microsoft.com/ events/hero/. The action figures include a bearded Windows Vista Sensei, SQL Server Gal and a few others that are meant to represent capable coders ready to fight online versus nunchuk-wielding evil-doers.
The site says the team of action heroes will be featured in a series of videos. Apparently this is a revival, or version 2, of Source Fource. The original series debuted in 2006. Searching for “Source Fource” on YouTube should reap a few results.
Campaign spam produces vicious Trojan download
The Washington Post and several other publications noted that spammers are taking advantage of public awareness about the U.S. presidential race to trick people into installing malicious software.
A recent round of spam messages claim to contain links to a video of Sen. Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, links that in fact lead to software that tries to turn the viewer’s PC into a spam-spewing zombie.
The spam campaign, detailed in a summary posted by Symantec Corp., encourages recipients to click on a link to download an interview with Clinton. The link actually fetches a Trojan downloader, which in turn tries to pull down another file that installs a rootkit.
Rootkits are noxious programs that end up as hidden system files and are difficult to remove.
The Trojan also contacts several different Internet servers for instructions to enlist the victim’s PC’s help in future spam campaigns. Symantec identifies this threat as Trojan.Srizbi.