Your summary is very well done. It is always hard to make a clear and concise point, about any topic, without writing a lot of detail, a fault of mine here now, but I’ll try to make an educated point, as brief as possible.
The following are assumptions only:
1) Clearly the majority of the public does not play chess – especially lawyers. 2) The majority of the public has not read the Art of War, Sun Tzu. 3) In this era of computers dominating the education system and daily life, the younger crowd does not know how to do their job/task manually, a reflection of a huge breakdown in their communication, and information comprehension, and processing skills. 4) People forget simple little games like connect the dots. I’ll try to quickly put these four thoughts together.
The following is a reality, it is no secret:
All US citizens pay their taxes. Every single person and business has ALL of their PII flowing to the most questionable institution on the face of this planet, the US IRS system. Information such as payroll reports, including SSN’s and addresses of people, 1099-Misc’s and other reports with EIN’s of separate contracting institutions, etc.
A dose of reality:
Based on experience, and to be fair, let’s further assume that there are some good people and good aspects to the IRS system, but the vast majority of each, quite honestly, are lacking to say the least. This is even justified by the Taxpayer Advocate, so you don’t have to believe me, read what they say.
Lets assume that some employees at the IRS don’t even like working for the IRS. They are not highly compensated and can be easily influenced. - Pause – Spare me any response that there are internal IT safe guards in place at the IRS that prohibit an IRS employee from simply obtaining information about another person or business. Basic bribes and human nature result in a person to overcome this obstacle. People talk - collusion - and information can always be obtained verbally.
Moving on, and not singling out any one person, or any business, but where any one person or business that has threatened another person or business, in any capacity, should always be worried if the threatened person or business has the experience of my generation, specifically in this industry. These people who cast the first stone as if they are immune are very much exposed. The motivated person in this accounting and tax attorney field could – not easily, but not overly hard either – put in some effort and determine who they are.
My point is knowing people, having good social skills, can override a lot of IT safeguards. Anyone from a “Trustify” type of aggressive firm who thinks they are protected with no repercussion are now subject to the same sense of false security as victims of any hack, Sony, Target, etc.
Clearly these people never respected the game of Chess, to think 6 -8 moves out, because this is real. They have never read or appreciated the Art of War, meaning how to manipulate a system, going around IT and dealing with people directly (bribes, understanding personal motivations, etc.) and what to do with the information once obtained. I wonder how many IRS people are retiring this year, that didn’t like their jobs, that wouldn’t mind having some extra cash post retirement – I don’t think this is ridiculous or false concept, this could be a reality. Just connect all my dots. Especially if you contact any person, in any industry, immediately after said person’s retirement, this person is always interested in earning extra cash.
I want to be crystal clear, I would never encourage nor do anything to hurt anyone, but I know my evil twin would be very successful in obtaining what he wanted. BTW, not to pick on the IRS, but this same point or concept could be made about health insurance industry, doctors records, the basic dentist, omg the DMV! many people can be very easily bribed with the intent of obtain data. Many people have friends with all kinds of access.
PII issues are not always solely IT based, I guess is my final point. I have read so many articles about IT and hardly any one human interaction, I think this reflects how far gone general society has gone off course. Have we become so caught up in IT as a society ,that we forget there is a human and social interactions to consider and should properly anticipate?
With the utmost sincerity, I hope I have made my point objectively, intelligently and in a non-threatening manner. Thanks.