If you can relate to the title of this article without a snag or apprehension as to how it must be, then you belong not to this generation they call the millennials. But because the foundation was built before any millennial was born, a legacy is in hand.
C language, Fortran, COBOL, Delphi, are all olden program languages which is just around forty years away from this year of 2021. For those in a different line of knowledge, and subsequent work, this may come as confusion compounding itself.
It is not just taking a look at the cellular phones you have had in a backward manner through the years, if you can recall, that will make you see the exponential growth of technology in every little thing we use today. It is also what is inside that matters, the software.
It is getting compacted and complicated in the world of computing presently than it ever has been. Phishing and hacking, malware and viruses in disguise, ransomware, are just a few that have confounded matters today.
What have we got to stave off this malicious affair? Security in the 21st century; more stable, more reliable, more secure than its ancestors, is the key to keeping your digital identity safe. In a way of speaking, fight a sword with a better sword.
Growing statistics on scammers.
Indeed, there is and if you go deeper, it will come to your realization that this is another form of harm to society. Exposing your tax data to others will potentially endanger you to unscrupulous predators.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in a common day, does not send emails to each of its taxpayers. If in the event that you do think it may come from them, call the local IRS, but never open the attachment the email may have.
The great pretenders.
The world must be full of gullible people because this one sits side by side with the first. They may come as emails or notices through slow mail to compel you to update your tax account immediately.
They may even be as brazen as coming to you in person claiming to be IRS agents with an ultimatum right at that moment. They are creative and desperate, if it be said so, but the IRS does not do that.
Password guardianship.
Many attribute the loss of one’s digital identity to the lazy fallback of using the same password through all of one’s account for the past decade or more. It is a giveaway to the scammers and illegal livewires, but you are a slouch, how should you do it?
There are many applications that generate passwords and be the keepers of those passwords at the same time. The problem is you did not make the code. The coders of that application have the potential to steal your data and see your tax return and … boom …you’re a gem.
Since you were the one to admit that you are a slouch, then do the analog method: write it down and keep it where only you know where. Easy enough? Or you want to sit?
Hardware gates.
You have the software, the thing that makes the program run along as you like it, then you must have something that it links, sits, domicile on. The hardware. You do password protection then do the same with your hardware which are both essentially equal.
You need to protect your computer or laptop because you forgot where you had placed it last. Maybe, you slept on the bus in exhaustion (because you are not a slouch) and your sling bag is gone with your laptop in it upon waking.
Here is a list of what you can do to further your protection:
- Upon activation, require a password before entry into your system.
- Keep confidential files in one location with gates
- Use PDF encryption on your PDF tax returns
- Run antivirus software as often
- Copy, erase or remove your hard disk if you put your laptop on the market
The Unexpected.
This is something nobody on this planet would ever desire to happen specially when you are right in the middle of it. Disasters (sinkholes that swallow your house or tornadoes that start in your kitchen) do happen and it is something you must be prepared with.
Technology has provided you with miniaturization. Copy your tax return, real property titles, investment certificates, wills and mortgages – these that you have labored because you are not a slouch – into a high-density USB drive or a memory stick.
The digital era invites theft, so be prepared. Ask Jackson Hewitt to prepare your perfect return, remove the stress and live a longer life.
