IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
washingtonpost.com
IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
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Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#2The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address.
Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#3The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
If the system were compromised I'd expect more than 100k attacked in this manner. Bet they were phishing victims or something.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#4The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
This happened to a few people I work with. 100k seems low. They found out by the IRS rejecting their return as they had "already filed".
You'd think we'd have a better system by now than a short-ish unique number which never changes during your lifetime as the key for much of your financial / credit-related authorization.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#5Krebs 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.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#6The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
This happened to a few people I work with. 100k seems low. They found out by the IRS rejecting their return as they had "already filed". You'd think we'd have a better system by now than a short-ish unique number which never changes during your lifetime as the key for much of your financial / credit-related authorization.
That's a much larger problem than this current breach in the linked article. People have been filing early fraudulent returns for a long time because it's not that hard to do. I seem to recall reading the tricky part if figuring out how to actually get the money, since it will be issued in the name of the person who filed. The good news is it's often detected when people file their real return. I'm sure it's a giant hassle though.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#7The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
This happened to a few people I work with. 100k seems low. They found out by the IRS rejecting their return as they had "already filed". You'd think we'd have a better system by now than a short-ish unique number which never changes during your lifetime as the key for much of your financial / credit-related authorization.
USPS is rumored to be working on such a system actually.
http://securekey.com/press-releases/securekey-technologies-w...
SecureKey IIRC is used by Canada. USPS is in a unique position in that they have a ton of employees literally who can verify mailing addresses by brute force. Every day (except holidays). Rain, Snow or shine.
Having USPS in charge of the US's future "online identity" would be a good way of transforming the ailing agency and giving them a very useful purpose that only USPS can do. There's a lot of win/win potential here.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#8The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
This happened to a few people I work with. 100k seems low. They found out by the IRS rejecting their return as they had "already filed". You'd think we'd have a better system by now than a short-ish unique number which never changes during your lifetime as the key for much of your financial / credit-related authorization.
The SSN was never designed or intended to be an ID number for anything but social security.
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#9[deleted]
Re: IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000
#10The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript.” In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. Do we know if the system was compromised, or if the thieves just had access to the personal information of those taxpayers?
If the system were compromised I'd expect more than 100k attacked in this manner. Bet they were phishing victims or something.
Funny, I'm more inclined to believe that the IRS is underreporting the number.