EROs and Wireless Networks

[Koss]

In an earlier post, Possi wrote:

I know that I cannot transmit returns via wireless network. I want to use a second computer in my office that will be wireless and internet accessible. Am I legally allowed to have tax returns on that computer if I am not transmitting them from that computer?

Do IRS regs, or some other body of regulation, prohibit the use of a secure wireless network for the transmission of tax returns or other sensitive client data?

I would think that such transmissions would be permissible if the wireless network satisfies certain industry standards, or recommendations, for data security and encryption.

Does someone have an actual citation to regulations or legislation that prohibits the use of wireless networking?

A properly secured wireless network may be more secure than an inadequately protected wired network.

What am I missing? Is there something buried in Gramm-Leach-Bliley? Or the new 7216?

BMK

[Possi]

seminar training

I was taught at a seminar that wireless computer systems were not legal to use for the transmission of tax returns.

I was also taught that I am not allowed to speak to the IRS on a wireless phone, that I had to have a hardline telephone in my office for that purpose.

This was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and I believe it was at the IRS Forum that I learned it.

Has that changed?

[JCH]

You're kidding, aren't you? If so, this qualifies as most humorous post of the day. If you're not joking, then it is completely okay to use wireless networks to file returns, and you can talk on a cordless phone to IRS.

[mblatour]

Wow!

This post made my heart jump....suddenly I pictured the IRS showing up on my door steps with a set of handcuffs to haul me away for breaking the "wireless" rule.

Thanks for testing my blood pressure

[Koss]

Transmitters?

Maybe the IRS e-file policies prohibit the use of wireless networks by the transmitters.

I don't think anyone on this board is a transmitter. We're all sending returns to an aggregator, or a host, or some third party vendor, or whatever you want to call it. None of us are literally transmitting directly to the IRS. We are not connecting directly to the IRS computer network.

I'm sure the IRS has some pretty tough standards for the systems that actually transmit data directly into their mainframe. But none of us would ever have any reason to read that stuff...

I'm just speculating as to how the myth might have gotten started.

BMK

[Possi]

I would feel like a dunce....

... if you all weren't so KIND to me!!

Seriously!

Thanks for straightening me out. I feel so much better now... ahhhhhhh.....

[Burke]

So do I. You had me going for a while.

[Possi]

sorry

Sorry to get your goat! Sometimes my friends accuse me of dying my roots brown instead of my hair blonde...... they think it's natural.

Really, I swear, I learned it at a seminar. I won't say anything else about it. And I will never ever tell anyone who else fell for it!!

What happens at TTB STAYS at TTB!

=)

[tilt53]

I do recall reading (somewhere, somewhen) that you shouldn't call about a credit card where you have to enter a card number on a cordless phone - that it was not secure and the numbers could be picked off the airwaves. Don't know how true that was. I have to use cordless phones so that I can move around the office to pull a file, or check on an appt. date/time. That's all I have now.

[Koss]

Cordless Phones

Way back in the late 80s and early 90s, the first generation of cordless phones had real security issues. There were only a few channels, and neighbors could listen in on your conversations, usually by accident.

I'm not kidding. I'm 40 years old, and most people my age or older probably remember this.

Modern cordless phones have a lot more channels, and much better encryption.

This isn't an issue anymore.

BMK

[David1980]

Yes I remember those cordless phones.

As for wireless networks, while I know it's not a conclusive indication of anything, a lot of the H&R Block corporate owned offices here run off "clear wire" which is a wireless internet provider.

[erchess]

An Observation and a Question

I don't think you want to go to a WIFI hot spot with your laptop and transmit returns or for that matter send email to or have Instant Messaging Conversations with clients or send email about clients to the IRS. I suppose if you don't consider your own matters private you can email about your own taxes or enrollment status. In fact I don't have cites for any of this but it just seems like common sense.

Now I have a question. Just as cordless phones were once insecure, so were cell phones which were easy to pick up on police scanners. Is this still true?

[BP.]

possi, you had me pulling up a 1345!

[Koss]

Wireless, Wireless and Wireless

Okay... the more observant on this board already know this, but I'm a seasonal tax guy. At my "real" job... well...I work in Tech Support at one of the Big Three wireless carriers.

So I have a license from the FCC to shoot my mouth off. [LMAO]

Modern cell phones are pretty secure. The older generation of analog cell phones was easier to hack. With modern digital wireless phones, it is almost impossible to hack into them. Unless you work for Al Queda or Homeland Security.

Local wireless networks--in your office, your home, your public library, or at Starbucks--may be secure or unsecure. And "secure" is a relative term. I'm referring to local wireless networks that are broadcast by a Linksys router, or something similar, that you can buy at OfficeMax for about a hundred bucks. Some of these networks are relatively secure, and some of them are not.

It is absolutely true that if you place an order to purchase something on the internet, using your credit card, and you do this using a Wi-Fi connection at your local public library, or a coffeehouse that offers free Wi-Fi, then it is possible that a professional hacker in the immediate area could be "listening," and capturing your credit card information. It is possible, but rather unlikely. The same thing could be said for e-mail containing social security numbers or other client data.

But the local wireless networks in most of our offices are protected with passwords and various types of encryption.

Wide Area Wireless Networks are different. The wireless internet services offered by AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon are pretty secure. These connections are just as secure, or in some cases even more secure, than consumer hardwired internet services such as Roadrunner or Comcast. These networks use very sophisticated encryption, and they are very difficult to hack.

Clearwire is a different type of consumer internet service. It is indeed wireless. It is similar, but not identical, to satellite-based internet service. It is relatively secure.

It is the local wireless routers that create exposure and potential liability.

Think about this: What if your insurance agent is using a laptop in his office, connected to a Linksys router, without adequate security and encryption? He may be sending your insurance application, with your social security number and medical information, over an unsecured local wireless network that could be hacked by some scumbag sitting in the parking lot.

This sort of thing could happen in your office, too.

But if you use the right kind of encryption, you have nothing to worry about.

BMK

[Possi]

gotcha???

possi, you had me pulling up a 1345!

Sorry guy! I really truly believed it! It's people like me that keep people like you HUMBLE!
hahahahaha

=)