NLB Blog

Now that the holiday season is over a new season begins- tax season. Whether you are ready or not tax identity thieves and IRS imposters are.  We want to educate you on what tax identity theft is how IRS Imposters target you, as well as give you tips to start fighting tax identity theft right away. 

This tax season it’s the same old story when it comes to fraud; but the 2020 reboot is going to require tax professionals and taxpayers to level-up when it comes to staying cyber safe. The targets remain the same (employers, payroll companies, tax preparers and taxpayers) as does the approach: Social engineering. But the bad guys got in great shape during the off-season and have a stealthier playbook in 2020. 

Also known as Data Protection Day in Europe, Data Privacy Day is a global thing. However, unlike National Talk Like a Pirate Day or International Donut Day, Data Privacy Day takes notice of an increasingly urgent reality, the erosion of our most often ignored human right: the right to privacy. While Data Privacy Day only dates back to 2007, it is only in recent years that it has been getting much attention. The prime reason for this bad news. We have hit a privacy tipping point

The last 6 months of 2019 were busy! We were busy not only with our dedication to our customers and our community but also growing our team with some new faces.   We are excited to introduce you to the newest members of the NLB team.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday made clear that the online-offline divide in consumers’ minds has almost disappeared. Among the big winners for sales in 2019 will be a device that is perhaps the best physical representation of that diminishing online-offline divide: the digital assistant.

Even basic home goods like doorbells and light bulbs are commonly being sold with Wi-Fi connectivity and the ability to integrate into Google Home-, Siri-, or Alexa-enabled networks. These devices do not just talk to one another. They’re also providing the companies that manufactured them with a gold mine of data about how they’re being used–and, increasingly, who is using them.

When you think about cyber threats, what comes to mind? An extortionist announcing your doom with a dark monitor and a laughing skull? State-sponsored cyber-warriors working from a secure command post? President Trump’s certain, “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds?” Chances are good, your version of cyber risk involves one of the above “types” hunched over a keyboard deploying massively sophisticated malware on the networks of unsuspecting businesses and government agencies. Think again. Forget megabreaches. We’ve entered the gigabreach era. The personal data of entire nations is up for grabs–literally: Ecuador, Bulgaria. And the threat is not only coming from external sources. There are smaller things to worry about, and they are in your office right now.

The personal data of more than 752,000 applicants filed to obtain copies of birth and death certificates was found on an unprotected Amazon Web Services database. The leaked data has been tracked back to a company that provides the online request forms for copies of birth and death certificates to state governments. States contracting with the company include California, New York, and Texas. The publicly available data includes names, mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, family information, and birth dates.

Hackers have compromised Ring security cameras, which in theory could allow third parties video and audio access to millions of homes. There have been several recent incidents of hackers gaining access to Ring cameras in the United States. These cyber intrusions include harassment of residents with racial slurs via the camera’s built-in speaker, bitcoin ransom demands and inappropriate communication with children.