The main cybersecurity challenges this year will be new viruses in emails, phishing campaigns, vulnerable end-to-end devices, as well as the growth of e-commerce and longer and more powerful attacks.

This is evidenced by the forecasts of cybersecurity experts of Tet (Lattelecom Group), which provides services of cloud technology, cybersecurity, GDPR-audit, and other IT solutions.

In 2020, Tet prevented 2,400 a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) and blocked 140,000 infected emails, which is 50% more than a year earlier.

Analyzing the statistics of 2020, we see that the “pandemic” was observed in cyberspace, as the number of both viruses and attacks has increased.

According to Tet, the largest increase in DDoS attacks was observed in the second quarter of 2020 – during the first emergency – says Uldis Libietis, head of IT security Tet.

He emphasizes that DDoS attacks become longer – if once they lasted tens of minutes, now – a few hours and are repeated. Due to the growth of e-commerce and dependence on digital technologies, the trend will continue this year.

Sending a data stream of more than 100 Gbps to the victim’s server with small breaks for several days cannot be organized by one person or a small circle of people. Such actions need to be purposefully coordinated. One can only guess who is actually ordering and planning such attacks. However, they will not disappear this year.

Another notable trend is related to compromised third-party software, which is already affecting IT giants.

Modern IT solutions are often based on third-party software solutions that come with many small or open-source products. Hackers try to take advantage of opportunities to get into large systems just by using such small links in the chain.

Cases of such hacks are expected this year. A similar situation occurred in 2020 with SolarWinds Orion, when many companies, including Microsoft and VMware, fell victim to using software from a reliable manufacturer, which turned out to be compromised, – said a spokesman for Tet.

This means that development organizations will have to implement new or improve existing processes to control software components and the development process.

The problem of infected emails is still relevant. Since August 2020, we have seen a rapid increase in viral activity – the number of infected documents has almost doubled.

One of the brightest examples is the Emotet virus, the spread of which was stopped due to the coordinated work of many countries.

An alarming trend is observed with the spread of viruses through “edoc” and “asice” supplements, which open, even despite safety warnings. Phishing campaigns will continue. All these viruses require more vigilance from each person.

Based on last year’s data and the development of the situation with the pandemic and its consequences around the world, it is already clear that the focus of cybercriminals is a person and his ultimate device.

Why try to break the security perimeter of the enterprise and the firewall or a well-protected cloud? Instead, more and more attacks will be targeted at the weakest part – the person and the device on which he works from home.

Old software, lack of virus protection, access to Admin page, limited ability to control employees or its absence, in general, make employees an easy target.

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The main place in the US federal tax system is occupied by three taxes:

• individual income;
• social insurance;
• corporate profits.

The federal individual income tax is levied on the entire working population of the United States. It taxes almost all types of income that can be received by the population:

• wages and benefits;
• income from private business;
• interest on contributions to credit and savings institutions;
• dividends;
• rent;
• unemployment benefits paid by private companies.

Interest income received by holders of certain types of securities issued by state governments is not taxable. Pensions and social security benefits are partially taxed.

Each taxpayer is entitled to a number of discounts and deductions from their gross income before tax. First of all, there are so-called personal deductions.

In addition to personal deductions, taxpayers have the right to make a number of targeted discounts on their taxable income. The five articles of such discounts are the most important. In this way, it is allowed to deduct from the gross income part of the costs of treatment and other medical care, which exceeds 7.5% of this income for the previous year.

Many Americans buy private homes for payment using a special bank loan for up to 30 years but at high annual interest rates. Payments of this interest are also deducted from annual income. In addition, it is allowed to deduct part of the interest payments on a consumer loan.

Funds paid in the form of taxes to state and local authorities, as well as donations to various non-profit organizations, mainly religious and voluntary, are deducted from the annual income.

Instead of making all these discounts by item, the taxpayer has the right to apply the so-called standard discount, the amount of which depends only on marital status, but not on the amount of income or any items of expenditure.

Thus, a couple who uses a single standard discount applies it in the amount of 5 thousand dollars, for single people it is 3 thousand dollars, for single people who have at least one dependent – 4.4 thousand, and for a couple who fills out tax returns separately – 2.5 thousand dollars.

After the taxpayer has made all the deductions allowed by law from his gross annual income, the remaining amount is directly taxed on income tax.

The second most important federal tax is the social security tax, which is levied only on income from wages and gifts (so it is sometimes called the payroll tax). This tax has a number of specific features. First of all, it is levied in equal parts from workers, landlords, and entrepreneurs.

This means that the entrepreneur pays for each employee of the company an amount equal to the amount of tax levied on the employee. In addition, the social insurance tax is not levied on the entire salary, but only part of it to a certain level established by law (tax base).

The fees from this tax are determined by law exclusively for the payment of pensions to the elderly, the disabled, families who have lost a breadwinner and can be used for other activities.

The third major federal tax is the corporation tax. It is taxed on the gross redistributive income of a corporate business. Profit of 50 thousand dollars taxed at the maximum rate – 34%

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But this did not help to soften the verdict. At a recent court hearing, he was ordered to pay a large compensation amounting to $ 36,631,687.10 to various agencies, including the Federal Forestry Administration. And although the adolescent’s lawyer tried to prove that such a verdict was “a cruel and unusual punishment,” the judge in charge of the case disagreed with him and ordered the department for juvenile delinquents to draw up a payment schedule. In addition to the fine, the teenager will also have to work 2000 hours on public works.

But in the verdict there is an item that can partially alleviate the fate of the culprit of the fire. The court can find “satisfied” the claims of various departments for compensation if the teenager within the next 10 years will make available payments for him and will not commit any unlawful actions.

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