Revenue Canada shuts down web services

[lecale]

.

[super807]

Wwe filed our taxes electronically on Sunday. Now I'm not sure if that's a good thing cause we got it in before they shut it down, or if that makes us vulnerable to having our info hacked.

[lecale]

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[super807]

But if the use of bug cannot be detected (according to the article), just wondering if it was being used on the CRA website before the shutdown. Cause that's the type of website that could provide a lot of valuable info to be used maliciously. But I don't know about the technical details of bugs and hacking, so don't really understand how vulnerable the CRA website has been due to this thing.

[tjthemanto]

Wow !

And I just logged in yesterday to check information on my various credits like GST/HST credit etc , shouldn't have done that..as my refund is already deposited..was just checking on some other things out of curiosity

I guess if they have been hacked it wouldn't matter if I logged in or not..hackers would have accessed my info anyways

[pudi]

Those who submitted their returns before the shutdown are the ones whose data may have been compromised. Those that complete it after the fix will be safe.

But also note that there's been no evidence of hackers using the bug to acquire information.

[lecale]

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[Ciel]

At least this time, the CRA had acknowledged a possible issue for the website shutdown. Not like a really long delay after the issue was made known online.

[tjthemanto]

I think lot of sites are affected due to this like YAHOO etc , so its not just a CRA issue.

[Natalka]

Do not log into accounts from afflicted sites until you're sure the company has patched the problem.

http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-prot...eartbleed-bug/


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/new-web-security-threat-i-would-change-every-password-everywhere/article17892756/

[FLA]

Hope they can get that done quickly.

[lecale]

.

[lecale]

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[tjthemanto]

84% of people have already filed their returns, but if you haven't, well oh sh-t.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/reve...-bug-1.2603742

I think CBC screwed up when they said " More than 6.7 million Canadians have filed tax returns electronically as of March 24. That represents almost 84 per cent of returns. "

What they mean is that out of the 6.7 million tax returns filed so far , 84 % have been filed electronically & the rest by other means like paper etc.

6.7 million doesn't represent 84 % of the total IT returns filed in Canada each year , as each year close to 25 million IT returns are filed in Canada.

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Financial Post is more accurate : ( with the 84 % thing )

http://business.financialpost.com/20..._lsa=a52c-2f8b

" At the end of March the CRA said that so far this year it has received about 6.7-million income tax returns, with 84% coming through its online service. "
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For country of 34 million ( I know not everyone needs/or files a return ) ..6.7 million returns is too small a number to represent 84 % of the total IT returns.

I wouldn't be surprised if the total IT returns are around 25 million per year for a population of 34 million .

See 2009 stats below

http://www.financialpost.com/persona...362/story.html

" In 2009, Canadians filed nearly 24.5 million personal tax returns. Of those, 8.3 million of them were non-taxable the majority of which are likely being filed by Canadians to ensure their ongoing eligibility for certain benefits and credits. "



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[Ciel]

Since corporations are entities, their year-ends might determine when the tax filing date deadline is (later than April 30). So retail firms with March 31 year-ends won't necessarily have started filing returns yet.