While this may seem like a safe option via the secure Web site of the IRS, electronic filing still leaves much of your confidential information at risk to savvy computer hackers and tax time phishing scams. Just looking for online help with your taxes opens the door to poisoned websites.

What's more, is that many Americans still copy and print their returns on unsecured devices - again, raising the risk of identity theft. That's because copiers have hard drives that store images of every copy/printout they make. They can be hacked into, like anything else with a hard drive. And this is just the beginning - since most copiers are attached to a network, they are also vulnerable to attack that way; pretty intimidating at tax time.

So, how can Americans better protect themselves this tax season? Experts from avast! Antivirus (www.avast.com) and Sharp Electronics (www.sharpusa.com) offer the following solutions for taxpayers filing electronically and copying tax returns this year:

- Stop the Intrusion: You can keep your computer, online activities and identity protected with avast! Antivirus software. With more than 100 million users worldwide, its award-winning performance is proven, yet its unique approach to monitoring your hard drive means it won't slow your computer. avast! provides excellent protection from malware and hackers, even out-performing some paid products.
- Avoid Wandering Eyes: Typical copiers store data on local hard drives that can be removed or hacked via network connections. Sharp's multi-tiered approach to document security means that hard drives are continually being wiped clean of cached data, and hackers have no chance of accessing the information.
- Keep Your Guard Up: You need protection that can identify and block infected Web sites from accessing your computer. Even if your favorite online source of tax advice says it is protected, that won't keep you safe against bogus look-alike sites and infected search results. avast! antivirus researchers identified fake search results for "turbo tax" - a popular tax preparation program - beginning on March 19th.

About avast! antivirus products: avast! is the multi-award winning antivirus product line from ALWIL Software a.s., which is ICSA Labs certified, and Checkmark certified (for both antivirus and anti-malware). avast! Antivirus regularly receives the Virus Bulletin 100% award, for detection of 100% of in-the-wild viruses, and is an SC Awards winning product. avast! Antivirus is in use in 50 million homes and offices worldwide. It is specifically engineered to have low system requirements and to automatically and incrementally update both the program and virus definitions, so that it is always up-to-date.

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