Kurt's Thoughts

Quote:

For all 41 states with personal income tax, the income tax deadlines have been pushed back due to the coronavirus crisis. Most of these states have pushed their income tax deadline (both for filing and payment) to July 15, 2020. However, there are a few exceptions including:

• Colorado, where the payment deadline has been pushed back to July 15 but the filing deadline has been pushed further to Oct. 15
• Hawaii, where the payment and filing deadlines are both July 20
• Iowa, where the payment and filing deadlines are both July 31
• Mississippi, where the payment and filing deadlines are both May 15
• Virginia, where the payment deadline is June 1 and the filing deadline is May 1

You should check with your state taxing authority if you’re dealing with estimated quarterly taxes. These deadlines may not apply to those specific payments.

Read more here:

• COVID-19 & Taxes: Here’s What You Need to Know
  April 8, 2020
  https://www.taxdefensenetwork.com/blog/covid-19-taxes/

I know a certain OTHER major school district  <ahem> that uses Teams as well.  (But they never went Zoom to begin with.)

Good job, New York. Stop using software that treats security & privacy as an afterthought.

• “New York City schools ban Zoom due to security concerns and shift to Microsoft Teams” – Geekwire
  https://www.geekwire.com/2020/new-york-city-schools-ban-zoom-due-security-concerns-shift-microsoft-teams/

Interesting line from Zoom Video Communication’s SEC filing:

(From Pg 21: “Risk Factors”)

Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to provide notice of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. In addition, some of our customers require us to notify them of data security breaches. Security compromises experienced by our competitors, by our customers or by us may lead to public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. In addition, we have a high concentration of research and development personnel in China, which could expose us to market scrutiny regarding the integrity of our solution or data security features. Any security compromise in our industry, whether actual or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively affect our ability to attract new customers and hosts, cause existing customers to elect not to renew their subscriptions or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, which could harm our business.

Seems Zoom has a lot of reasons to be concerned about security:

• “Zoom Lets Attackers Steal Windows Credentials via UNC Links” – Bleeping Computer
  https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/zoom-lets-attackers-steal-windows-credentials-run-programs-via-unc-links/
• FBI warns on Zoom conference security – FCW
  New teleworkers can unintentionally open up videoconferences to unwanted intruders, warns the FBI.
  https://fcw.com/articles/2020/03/31/zoom-bombers-fbi-rockwell.aspx?oly_enc_id=
• Zoom is a work-from-home privacy disaster waiting to happen – Mashable
  The video conferencing services is a privacy minefield.
  https://mashable.com/article/zoom-conference-call-work-from-home-privacy-concerns
• Zoom is leaking email addresses and photos of users to strangers. – Vice
  Zoom has treated some users who sign up with personal email addresses as if they’re all part of the same company, letting them video call and see each other’s info.
  https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7e95m/zoom-leaking-email-addresses-photos
• Zoom Meetings Do Not Support End-to-End Encryption – The Intercept
  The video conferencing service can access conversations on it’s platform.
  https://theintercept.com/2020/03/31/zoom-meeting-encryption/
• Beware of ‘ZoomBombing’: screensharing filth to video calls” – TechCrunch
  https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/17/zoombombing/
• Zoom iOS App Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don’t Have a Facebook Account – Vice
  Zoom’s privacy policy isn’t explicit about the data transfer to Facebook at all.
  https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7e599/zoom-ios-app-sends-data-to-facebook-even-if-you-dont-have-a-facebook-account
• Zoom faces a privacy and security backlash as it surges in popularity – The Verge
  https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/1/21202584/zoom-security-privacy-issues-video-conferencing-software-coronavirus-demand-response
  
• What Zoom doesn’t understand about the Zoom backlash – The Verge
  
  It’s sold like an enterprise app, but it sure doesn’t act like one
  https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/interface/2020/4/2/21202984/zoom-backlash-zoombombing-encryption-exploits-consumerization-of-it
• Elon Musk’s SpaceX bans Zoom over privacy concerns -memo
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-zoom-video-commn/elon-musks-spacex-bans-zoom-over-privacy-concerns-memo-idUSKBN21J71H
• Laguna Beach City Council meeting is bombed on Zoom with pornography
  https://www.ocregister.com/2020/04/01/laguna-beach-city-council-meeting-is-bombed-on-zoom-with-pornography/
• New York City schools ban Zoom due to security concerns and shift to Microsoft Teams – Geekwire
  https://www.geekwire.com/2020/new-york-city-schools-ban-zoom-due-security-concerns-shift-microsoft-teams/