[LINK] Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers

[Kim Holburn]

Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/virus-infects-10000-computers/ 
2006/08/02/1154198204613.html

> MORE than 10,000 Australian computers have been infected by a  
> trojan virus - invisible to most anti-virus software - that is  
> transmitting their owners' private details to identity thieves.
>
> The Australian Tax Office confirmed yesterday that 178 taxpayers  
> had unwittingly revealed their tax file numbers while lodging tax  
> returns online.
>
> These people had been notified and were being offered new tax file  
> numbers, a spokesman said.

Another reason not to use a windows version of etax.

Here is what I sent the tax office in feedback about a month ago:

> etax is sadly lacking in security.
>
> etax only runs on Microsoft Windows.
> It requires administrator access just to run.
> It stores or tries to store personal data in the application directory
> It tries to install in the directory C:/etax
> Your site wants to use Internet explorer and with ActiveX turned on  
> to check security.
>
> All of these things make it a serious security risk.
> As a security professional this is a series of badly thought out  
> decisions in regards to security.
>
> It is a fairly simple matter these days to use a development system  
> that creates applications that run on various systems like Linux  
> LSB or Macintosh.
>
> Security professionals these days are recommending people not run  
> Windows and if they do run windows they should not use Internet  
> Explorer and if they do run internet explorer they should turn off  
> ActiveX.
>
> Applications should be able to run without Administrative privileges.
> They should only store data in user directories.
>
> You really need to get a security professional to audit the whole  
> etax system.





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Kim Holburn
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