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'The Computer Ate My Tax Return' -- Tips to Avoid Panic on April 17

ARMONK, NY — March 6, 2007 — As if Income Tax Day didn’t cause enough anxiety, the rise of digital data keeping, commercial tax software and e-filing has created a new source of heartburn for taxpayers: data loss. Important tax information can disappear in the blink of a cursor, throwing a monkey wrench into the tax return preparation process as well as adding to the aggravation with late filing penalties.

The threat affects individuals and professional tax preparers alike. According to the Internal Revenue Service, 73 million tax returns were submitted electronically by both home users and tax professionals in 2006, a nearly 7 percent jump over the previous year. The IRS is expecting another surge in 2007, with a nationwide goal of 80 million e-filers.

But don’t panic. There are ways to avert data loss disaster as well as deal with it when it happens. With the April 17 tax filing deadline just around the corner, CBL Data Recovery Technologies advises consumers and tax professionals to:

• Save files frequently
• Use the back-up feature on their tax software if available
• Back up critical tax data to external media such as a CD or USB thumb drive
• Protect computer systems with anti-virus software and firewalls
• Keep children away from the computer containing tax data
• Turn off computers if they emit any unusual noise and contact a data recovery specialist

“A person’s first instinct when faced with a system failure and potential data loss is to fiddle with the computer in the hope of fixing a temporary glitch. More often than not, this makes the situation worse,” said Tim Margeson, General Manager, CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc. “It’s best to call a specialist who has the experience, knowledge and technologies to take control of your data loss problem, and quickly and effectively recover and return your missing data to you.”

To ease the pain, CBL offers customers free packaging and shipping of hard drives or laptops affected by tax data loss through the national network of more than 4,000 The UPS Store locations as well as participating Mail Boxes Etc. outlets. Details on this limited time complimentary service are available at www.cbldatarecovery.com.

About CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc. (www.cbldatarecovery.com)

Founded in 1993, CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc. is the leading independent provider of data recovery services and software. CBL employs proprietary techniques to recover data from storage devices including hard drives, tapes, RAIDs and external storage media. CBL offers services through its global network of data recovery laboratories, offices and authorized partners. In the United States, CBL has data recovery laboratories in Armonk, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; San Diego, California, and Houston, Texas.

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