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IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

washingtonpost.com

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Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#61

Post by acdha »

ahallock wrote: post #55
acdha wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> empirically that's not true Feel like expanding that point? I mean shrinking government and changing society so people depend on it less is literally part of the national GOP platform. Is your argument just that they're not willing to sabotage things for political advantage? (and, if so, how are we to explain the billions spent shutting down the federal government as a negotiating tactic?)

Let's see the drug war, DHS, military, NSA, no child left behind--just to name a few. The gov increased under Reagan despite what conservatives will tell you. The GOP has been part of massive increases in gov. Why would someone in political power ever be for downsizing gov, save a few outliers? It's just pandering to the base. A short-term sabotage is not out of the question. Actually, I have a graph showing how gov…

I must not have made my position clear. I don't think that they're particularly committed or effective deficit hawks – the true fiscal conservatives were purged years ago – but rather that this is now a key part of their public image. They heavily promote the idea that government is inefficient because it keeps people voting for them and, most importantly, keeps corporate-backed groups like Fox News from going on the attack in the next election.

That might necessitate a token effort somewhere to cut things but the real goal is the posture, not the results, so maximizing inefficiency isn't something they're concerned with. In most cases, they'll try to cut things which affect people who don't vote for them anyway – mass transit, funding for the poor, etc.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#62

Post by [deleted] »

ahallock wrote: post #55
acdha wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> empirically that's not true Feel like expanding that point? I mean shrinking government and changing society so people depend on it less is literally part of the national GOP platform. Is your argument just that they're not willing to sabotage things for political advantage? (and, if so, how are we to explain the billions spent shutting down the federal government as a negotiating tactic?)

Let's see the drug war, DHS, military, NSA, no child left behind--just to name a few. The gov increased under Reagan despite what conservatives will tell you. The GOP has been part of massive increases in gov. Why would someone in political power ever be for downsizing gov, save a few outliers? It's just pandering to the base. A short-term sabotage is not out of the question. Actually, I have a graph showing how gov…

[deleted]

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#63

Post by pecanpie »

zaroth wrote: post #5

Krebs wrote about this in March: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/03/sign-up-at-irs-gov-before... He has some good advice; claim your account before someone else does.

Currently, the link in the article that leads to irs.gov personal account creation, http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript , doesn't work for the stated purpose. And while a more direct link I found, https://sa.www4.irs.gov/eauth/pub/login.jsp , doesn't work either at the moment, perhaps at least one of the two will work sometime soon.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#64

Post by bane »

Taxes in the U.S. are absolutely ridiculous. Nearly everything is already reported to the IRS by employers, banks, brokers, etc. Why spend hours filling out and copying all that crap, and signing thing after thing after thing just to send the IRS information they already have?

The problem seems to be trying to carve out exemptions for little things here and there.

Just use a decent tax rate, get rid of all that crap, calculate what I owe and send me a bill or send me a check if I over-withheld or something.

Ugh it's so hard building a proper civilization.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#65

Post by [deleted] »

iamlolz wrote: post #37
daveloyall wrote: post #36

Multiple commenters have said that ~100,000 is "too low". The number quoted in the article is 104,000. Obvious questions: 1. Is 104,000 the exact count, or has it been rounded? 2. Did the hackers stop when their success count got there? 3. Does nobody else think it is funny that 1040 is a factor of 104,000? :) [edited a lot]

How is 1040 a famous number?(Australian here)

[deleted]

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#66

Post by superuser2 »

bane wrote: post #64

Taxes in the U.S. are absolutely ridiculous. Nearly everything is already reported to the IRS by employers, banks, brokers, etc. Why spend hours filling out and copying all that crap, and signing thing after thing after thing just to send the IRS information they already have? The problem seems to be trying to carve out exemptions for little things here and there. Just use a decent tax rate, get rid of all that crap,…

>Why spend hours filling out and copying all that crap, and signing thing after thing after thing just to send the IRS information they already have?

We wanted to; the tax-preparation lobby killed it.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#67

Post by sliverstorm »

revelation wrote: post #29

Something is wrong with the wording here. Thieves stole the tax info of 100,000 but they stole it from the IRS. Make no mistake: IRS needs to be held responsible for this. It is their fault.

Yes! Clearly the only appropriate action is to cut their budget another 20%. Maybe then they'll learn their lesson and fix the problem!

The budget cuts will continue until security improves!

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#68

Post by alexqgb »

bane wrote: post #64

Taxes in the U.S. are absolutely ridiculous. Nearly everything is already reported to the IRS by employers, banks, brokers, etc. Why spend hours filling out and copying all that crap, and signing thing after thing after thing just to send the IRS information they already have? The problem seems to be trying to carve out exemptions for little things here and there. Just use a decent tax rate, get rid of all that crap,…

Why spend hours filling out and copying all that crap, and signing thing after thing after thing just to send the IRS information they already have?

Because Intuit, H&R Block, and others like them who have built substantial businesses doing all that empty-work for you have made damn sure that Congress doesn't legislate their meal ticket away.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#69

Post by ceejayoz »

protomyth wrote: post #11
zaroth wrote: post #5

Krebs wrote about this in March: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/03/sign-up-at-irs-gov-before... He has some good advice; claim your account before someone else does.

"Kasper said the detective learned that money was deposited into her account, and that she sent the money out to locations in Nigeria via Western Union wire transfer, keeping some as a profit, and apparently never suspecting that she might be doing something illegal." I am having a really tough time believing she never suspected she was doing something illegal.

> I am having a really tough time believing she never suspected she was doing something illegal.

Why? People fall for the "I have $20 million for you, I just need a few hundred bucks to do the paperwork" scam all the time.

Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

#70

Post by ceejayoz »

malchow wrote: post #51

If this were a company, the headline would have been "IRS hacked; tax information stolen from 100,000." Instead the IRS was able to spin it to The Washington Post. The headline is "thieves stole tax info." Thieves! The real headline is that the IRS is hackable.

> The real headline is that the IRS is hackable.

That's not borne out in the slightest by what we know from the article. These people might've been phishing victims - you wouldn't claim a bank is hackable because people entered their bank password on a phishing site.

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