New Tax Fraud Scam Reminds Us: Protect Your Social Security Number

While Heartbleed and credit card breaches at Target and Michael's have us all on the watch for our security, the most secure number in your inventory isn't your credit card number: It's your Social Security number. Here are a few tips for protecting it.

Krebs on Security recently reported on a major break-in to a payroll software database and HR departments, specifically targeted to grab a social security numbers:

According to the control panel seen by this reporter, the scammers in charge of this scheme have hacked more than a half-dozen U.S. companies, filing fake tax returns on nearly every employee. At last count, this particular scam appears to stretch back to the beginning of this year's tax filing season, and includes fraudulent returns filed on behalf of thousands of people — totaling more than $1 million in bogus returns.

While Krebs reports on a wide-scale hack, the fact is that the treasure trove of potential money isn't in the database of credit cards. When a credit card is stolen, the number can be reissued and the owner (usually) has zero liability. A stolen social security number can result in a stolen tax refund, and reissuing the number isn't as easy as getting a new credit card. Even if you are secure the number, your employer may drop the ball and expose your information.

So what can you do to protect yourself and others? Here are a few tips:

• If you have access to Social Security numbers at work, guard them them. Create strong passwords and don't leave your systems logged in. Don't leave the Social Security numbers in plain view and avoid printing them on a shared printer. Shred the documents when done and securely erase the drive the even if the drive is an SSD.
• Consider getting a Federal Employer ID Number (FEIN) instead of giving out your Social security number. If you are a freelancer or otherwise self-employed you should always give out your FEIN instead of your Social Security number.
• Hide anything that has your Social Security number better than you would hide your credit card number. Don't leave this number in plain sight in the car or at work and don't use your number in a public place such as coffee shop. Shred any file with your Social Security number if you don't need the file. Check here to see when to do that.
• Consider getting an Identity Protection PIN. This is a two-factor authentication strategy.

You can change a credit card number, you can change your passwords, but changing your Social Security number is much more difficult. So make sure you're securing your Social Security number as much as you can.

Crimeware Helps File Fraudulent Tax Returns | Krebs on Security

Photo by 410(K) 2012.

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How to make sense of your Samsung firmware number

Kris Carlon 2014-04-13T14:00:01Z1 day ago

Kris Carlon

Putting down roots in Berlin after six years of traveling is a major step for Kris Carlon, who has spent more time living out of a tent lately than sitting at a desk. Kris comes to the AndroidPIT Editorial Team via a lengthy period spent writing on art and culture in Australia and other places he has lived. He joined the Android community while resurfacing in civilization back in 2010 and has never looked back, using technology to replace his actual presence in other people's lives ever since.

Every time a new firmware update appears there's a build number attached to it that may seem like total gobbledegook to you. You've probably noticed that your model number appears in there but the rest is likely a mystery. Not anymore! We'll explain how the Samsung firmware build numbering system works, so you can tell what you're looking at.

Most people know what version of Android they have, but not what all the other numbers mean. / © AndroidPIT

It's all pretty simple really, once you know what you're looking for. It's basically broken up into three parts, which are kind of obvious if you think about: device model, country/language, build date information. This is why when flashing firmware manually through Odin you need to make sure you have the right firmware for your region and model. Knowing the date that firmware was compiled also helps you know what is newer and identify the problematic firmware builds when things go astray.

Now when you see build number screenshots (right), you'll have a better idea of what you're looking at. / © hovax615@hotmail.com

So, let's get to it. The latest firmware available for the Galaxy S4 international variant is I9500XXUFNC1. Obviously, the I9500 is the model number for the international Galaxy S4. The next few letters are country code/CSC (customer software customization) related, you can find CSC code references on XDA and other sites, but you only need to look it up once for your country/CSC. The letter F in the example above (just before the last three numbers/letters) relates to the original Android version the firmware was based on, in this case Android 4.4.2.

Looking at tables like this needn't make you break out in a sweat. / © SamMobile

Finally, we get to NC1 - the business end - which is the date information and the stuff you want to keep an eye on the most when new builds appear. Years are covered alphabetically by the first character, where N is 2014, then the next letter is the month of the year, making this build from March. The final character is the revision code or version number within that month, so this firmware is the first version from March, 2014. If the versions in a month go beyond nine, the final character will become a letter, so A will be 10, B will be 11 and so on.

Here are the date codes for your reference::

Year:

J = 2010

K = 2011

L = 2012

M = 2013

N = 2014

and so on...

Month:

A = January

B = February

C = March

D = April

E = May

F = June

G = July

H = August

I = September

J = October

K = November

L = December

other letters will likelty refer to test builds, pre-release builds etc.

Which part of the firmware number did you already know? Any other Android numbering you'd like to know about?

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Smoother Number Transitioning With Odometer

One of the effective ways to make a presentation of numerical information more interesting is by adding a transition animation. Creating a transition animation can be done with javascript, but the coding will take you a long time. For a quicker alternative, try Odometer.

Odometer is a javascript plugin that can help you make your numerical information more attractive with smooth transitions and cool themes. It’s easy to set up and is supported on many current browsers.

Recommended Reading: How To Implement Infinite Page Scroll Effect In Static Webpages [Tutorial]

Implementation

Odometer is a standalone javascript plugin. You only have to include the js file and its theme in your page with the following code:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="odometer-theme-car.css" /><script type="text/javascript" src="odometer.js"></script>

You’re done! Now any element that you wrap with the odometer class will be transformed into an odometer.

In this example, I’m using a car-like odometer theme. Odometer comes with six other different themes, namely the default theme, digital, minimal, plaza, slot machine and train station themes. You can head over to the demo page to see them in action.

To update the value, you can use either native javascript or a jQuery code. First, call the setTimeout function, then define the updated value like in the following snippet:

<script> setTimeout(function(){ odometer.innerHTML = 5555; }, 1000);</script>

Or you can use a jQuery form like so:

setTimeout(function(){ $('.odometer').html(5555);}, 1000);

The value of 1000 in the code means the update process will be executed one second after the page has fully loaded.

Then, add an odometer class to any element you want, for example:

<p class="odometer">3252</p>

And the value of 3252 will then be changed to 5555 (as defined earlier) with a cool transition.

Options

For more advanced features, Odometer provides you with some options to customize. This is useful when the default setting doesn’t suit you. To be able to set options, first create an odometerOptions object like so:

<script>window.odometerOptions = { format: '(ddd).dd'};</script>

The format option will affect the number formatting rule, like showing a decimal point before certain digits. (ddd) means there is no decimal point in the number. And for other options, check out the following list:

window.odometerOptions = { auto: false, // Don't automatically initialize everything with class 'odometer' selector: '.my-numbers', // Change the selector used to automatically find things to be animated format: '(,ddd).dd', // Change how digit groups are formatted, and how many digits are shown after the decimal point duration: 3000, // Change how long the javascript expects the CSS animation to take theme: 'car', // Specify the theme (if you have more than one theme css file on the page) animation: 'count' // Count is a simpler animation method which just increments the value, // use it when you're looking for something more subtle.};

Conclusion

For those who often present numerical information and would like to make it more eye-catching, Odometer is a good choice. Just take note that if you input anything other than a number, the plugin won’t work. Anyway, do give it a try and let us know what you think!

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