Before you pass out,
“The IRS has revealed that cyber attackers managed to trick its system in handing over more than 100,000 access codes for user accounts. Fortunately the breach was discovered before any sensitive data was compromised.” – infopackets
The attack occurred at a source outside the IRS. Social Security numbers were stolen, and the hackers set a bot working, using them, and E-PINs were generated from those stolen numbers…to wait for later filing of taxes.
Apparently, 464,000 Social Security numbers were stolen, and “According to the IRS, the attackers made attempts to get a PIN code on 464,000 different accounts and successfully received the code for 101,000 of these accounts.” (ibid)
The IRS has stated unequivocally that no personal taxpayer data was compromised or disclosed.
The IRS will be contacting those affected by actual mail. Make sure you aren’t scammed this way, by phony emails (multi pronged attack).
Source:
https://www.infopackets.com/news/9782/irs-online-security-breach-affects-100k-taxpayers
