>From a very competent securitygeek friend...... Begin forwarded message:
> From: (*H*) > Date: February 8, 2012 8:51:48 PM EST > > > In starting to look into tax stuff for the year, I see that the IRS is > now offering the "free file fillable forms" option which they host via > Intuit's infrastructure but doesn't force filers to go pick amongst > a set of sketchy tax-prep companies nobody ever heard of before being > able to e-file. From the tutorials and FAQs on irs.gov it looks about > like one might expect; a web interface into a database entry "in the > cloud" where you build your return and you can save its state without, > I hope, having to retain context on your own machine. Behavior sort > of like a bank site, or the state variant I used as mass.gov last year. > > Needs all the expected bells-n-whistles enabled in the browser, of > course, and in trying to explore the "start fillable forms" link I get > an immediate obscure error. So much for their "accessibility" pablum. > There will probably be further rantage once I actually try to go use > the thing, and it is distinctly within the realm of possibility that > I'll be filing paper again this year. > > The FAQs also go into the email angle a little, including why mail > might get blocked and how to try and whitelist it in advance -- by > treating "irs.gov.website.helpd...@speedymail.com" as a trusted sender. > Speedymail.com?! So I did a little "follow the money" on it... > > It MXes through something calle "affina.com" in Peoria IL, and the domain > reg records for both it and speedymail.com point to the same registrant > via NSI. Looks reasonably legit so far. But then for yucks I hit > www.affina.com, and got redirected to www.teamhgs.com, which is an > outfit called ... Hinduja Global Solutions. Based out of India, listed > on the Bombay stock exchange, etc etc. Website rhetoric slightly > broken in ways that suggest offshore authorship. > > So the IRS has outsourced all of the email infrastructure that it > intends to use to have dialogue with millions of American taxpayers. > > We are *SO* pwnd. > > *H* _______________________________________________ Infowarrior mailing list Infowarrior@attrition.org https://attrition.org/mailman/listinfo/infowarrior