It doesn’t seem possible, but the end of the year and the beginning of “tax season” are not that far off. And with that comes the beginning of tax refund fraud season. One of the most popular and effective refund scams goes right to the source -- and collects W-2’s from a company’s HR or accounting personnel.

If you get another email from that Nigerian prince offering you a share of $50 million, you can be pretty sure now that it really IS a fake. Why? According to Interpol, the guy behind a global network of email scammers was arrested in Nigeria. And apparently, his name is “Mike.

Well, maybe not “free,” but certainly effective IT security doesn’t have to break the bank. The good news is that effective security isn’t just about cutting-edge equipment and expensive software. Some of the best ways to protect your IT and data don’t require more “stuff” in the way of expensive software or appliances.

I’ll occasionally review our old articles when preparing the monthly newsletter, and I came across this one that I thought was still relevant and interesting. I hope you’ll think so, too…

Recently, a friend forwarded me one of those Internet “Top 10 Things That ” emails that I almost always delete without reading.

And what do May flowers bring? PILGRIMS. That used to get a belly-laugh at home, but now the girls just groan and roll their eyes. “There’s goes dad, again…”

Aside from pilgrims, and groans, May flowers also accompany the spring thunderstorm – and that reminds us of the power and room environment issues we see with computer gear every spring and through the summer.

…is what we were feeling after the past few weeks of “non-disclosure disclosure” about a purported super cyber bug called “Badlock”. It even got its own logo. Specific information about it, information of the kind that would help us prepare, was notably and frustratingly absent.