• 0 Posts
  • 14 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 1st, 2023
  • LordOfTheChia@lemmy.worldtoSelfhosted@lemmy.world•What are common practice's for hardening/securing your server?
    4·
    5 months ago

    Do a search for you server OS + STIG

    Then, for each service you’re hosting on that server, do a search for:

    Service/Program name + STIG/Benchmark

    There’s tons of work already done by the vendors in conjunction with the DoD (and CIS) to create lists of potential vulnerable settings that can be corrected before deploying the server.

    Along with this, you can usually find scripts and/or Ansible playbooks that will do most of the hardening for you. Though it’s a good Idea to understand what you do and do not need done.

  • LordOfTheChia@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•Tax time
    1·
    10 months ago

    So you mainly want to avoid Intuit owned companies and H&R Block. They alone spent millions per year to lobby against easy and free filing for taxpayers.

    Then there’s the ACTR (American Coalition Of Taxpayer Rights) who spend $100s of thousands a year lobbying for the same (and are made up by 14 members:

    https://www.americancoalitionfortaxpayerrights.org/about/

    Intuit

    H&R Block

    Tax Act

    OnLine Taxes

    Wolters Kluwer

    Tax Hawk

    Liberty Tax

    Drake Software

    Jackson Hewitt

    also the following financial institutions:

    Netspend

    Republic Bank

    TPG Santa Barbara

    pathward

    Edit: Started a post in /c/asklemmy to find out alternatives. Tax Act was my go-to company, but they’ve joined the ACTR at some point, so they’re a no-go.

    https://lemmy.world/post/8447282

    Edit 2: Checking out some older reddit threads on the subject, FreeTaxUSA may be the best option so far. FreeTaxUSA are owned by Tax Hawk which is a member of the ACTR, however of all the ones i’ve checked so far, they are the cheapest (free Federal and $15 state), and at least they’re not one of the top lobbying companies like Intuit(Turbo Tax/Credit Karma tax services), H&R Block, or Jackson Hewitt.

  • LordOfTheChia@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•Tax time
    0·
    10 months ago

    Which is why they keep wanting to defund the IRS (example):

    1. It allows the wealthy to cheat on their taxes with less concerns of getting audited or if they do get audited, they can outspend the auditors.
    2. It would have de-funded this measure the IRS is getting ready to test which would allow Americans to figure out and pay their taxes without feeling compelled to go through middle men like Intuit and TurboTax.

    Edit: More direct example of point 2

    https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/09/tax-prep-companies-lobbying-against-free-file-face-scrutiny-from-lawmakers/

    After President Joe Biden’s December 2021 Executive Order instructed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to consider “expanded electronic filing options,” Yellen testified before the Senate Finance Committee that building a free direct filing service is “definitely a priority.” The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allotted $15 million for the IRS to explore the creation of a free federal tax filing service.

    In May, the IRS released a report announcing plans to launch the pilot program for the 2024 tax filing season and indicating that most U.S. taxpayers are interested in filing their taxes directly to the IRS for free.

    But in June, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee proposed a budget rider that would bar the IRS from using federal government funds to create a government-run tax preparation software, unless approved by the House and Senate’s appropriations committees.