thewayne: (Cyranose)
It only took six years. The project is headed up by two former Netscape employees who, with their wife's blessings, quit their jobs to work on this full time. They're developing all the hardware and software, and applied for tax-exempt status with the IRS.

It took six years to get it. They were caught up in the IRS problems from earlier this year. Turns out there's 200 employees responsible for vetting 60,000 501(c) applications every year, and they take close scrutiny with software projects like this. The issue is that they see a lot of people spin off big development projects into tax-exempt shelters, develop the code, then sell it. The delay is understandable and unfortunate, but fortunately this project survived.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/08/osdv/all/
thewayne: (Headbanger)
"IRS employees ignored security rules and turned over sensitive computer information to a caller posing as a technical support person, according to a government study.

Sixty-one of the 102 people who got the test calls, including managers and a contractor, complied with a request that the employee provide his or her user name and temporarily change his or her password to one the caller suggested, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an office that does oversight of Internal Revenue Service."

and

"Only eight of the 102 employees contacted either the inspector general's office or IRS security offices to validate the legitimacy of the caller."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070803-0750-irs-computersecurity.html

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/05/1834201

We really should do a similar study where I'm at, I know for a fact that this is not limited to the IRS. At least eight went to higher-ups to report the incident. This is why you can buy the t-shirt that says "Social Engineering: Because there is no patch for human stupidity."

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