IRS admits taxpayer hacking is much worse than previously announced

Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans

Last May, when the Internal Revenue Service announced that hackers had managed to successfully breach their network security and steal the confidential data of unwitting taxpayers, the IRS said that “approximately 100,000 tax accounts” were affected. But today the agency admitted that number is much larger, there being closer to 334,000 potential victims. One thing remains consistent: the hackers didn’t have access to the full IRS network, only the part dedicated to an online service called “Get Transcript,” which allowed taxpayers (or sophisticated hackers, as it turns out) to get online copies of previous years’ tax returns – which is often required for people getting a mortgage, among other things. So if you never had a “Get Transcript” account with the IRS, you have nothing to worry about regarding this breach. More compromised accounts On the other hand: if you did have such an account, the chances that your information has been compromised are much higher than the IRS originally admitted. So far the IRS has not identified any possible suspects, but last May it said it suspected the identity thieves operated somewhere in Russia. In a statement today, the agency said that “As it did in May, the IRS is moving aggressively to protect taxpayers whose […]

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