IRS says data breach was worse than thought

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2972252/cybercrime-hacking/irs-says-data-breach-was-worse-than-thought.html

By Katherine Noyes
IDG News Service
Aug 17, 2015

The cyberattack on U.S. taxpayer data reported by the Internal Revenue 
Service earlier this year now appears to be much worse than originally 
thought, the agency announced Monday, with as many as 300,000 citizens now 
believed to be potential victims.

Whereas in May the IRS reported that sensitive information of about 
roughly 100,000 taxpayers had been stolen by thieves through its "Get 
Transcript" online application, its latest estimates more than double that 
number. It's now believed that the thieves potentially gained access to 
more than 300,000 taxpayer accounts after attempting to breach more than 
600,000.

To gain access to the information, the thieves first stole information 
including Social Security details, dates of birth and street addresses 
from an outside, non-IRS source. They then used that information to clear 
a multistep authentication process in the app and access personal tax data 
on the IRS site.

The Get Transcript app was shut down in May.

[...]



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