IRS Program Hacked
Identity theft continues to be a very large problem. Even the Internal Revenue Service has been hacked.
The IRS said their Get Transcript Online service was hacked. Hackers obtained past tax return data of 104,000 people and also attempted to access the data of over 200,000 people. The IRS has a multi-step authentication process to make it difficult for hackers, but hackers had enough information from an outside source to clear that process. The information they obtained from the IRS site will make it easier for them to make more realistic fake tax returns that could evade anti-fraud filters, according to IRS Commissioner Koskinen.
The Get Transcript Online program is used by people to access tax information from previous years for mortgage and college applications.
The 200,000 people who hackers attempted to steal their information will receive a letter from the IRS letting them know that criminals have their tax data. The IRS will offer crediting monitoring services to the 104,000 people whose data was stolen by the hackers.
The IRS has shut down the Get Transcript Online service.
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