IRS Suffers Severe Data Breach, Putting Taxpayer Info In Jeopardy
The IRS recently published confidential info on 120,000 people on its website resulting in data being downloaded and viewed before removal.
“Oops,” is probably not the correct response to the IRS’s mistake on September 2, 2022. The Internal Revenue Service accidentally published confidential info from 120,000 citizens, saw the error, and quickly removed it. However, there was a window of time where it could have been viewed and even downloaded.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the breach was from its Form 990-T, which is “required for people with individual retirement accounts who earn certain types of business income within those retirement plans.” People who fill this out have IRAs invested in master limited partnerships, real estate, or other assets that generate income. It is not for those who have IRAs solely invested in securities.
In short, the IRS data was related to nonprofits and other tax-exempt organizations. In lieu of this data breach, the IRS will contact those affected personally.
The IRS data breach did not include highly sensitive info like social security numbers or info that could affect someone’s credit. It did, however, contain names, contact info, and financial information about income. This circumstance differs from when the IRS leaked Jeff Bezos’ and Elon Musk’s Tax Data. How that occurred remains a mystery.
What the IRS Needs to Do
As required by law, the IRS reported the data breach to congress; affected users will be notified in the coming weeks. An IRS employee who works on research found the violation, which led to a more extensive inquiry.
This IRS leak comes on the heels of much scrutiny regarding overinflated budgets and antique systems. President Biden recently signed into law the climate, healthcare, and tax legislation that released $80 billion to several agencies.
The IRS received a large chunk of that change and went to work, spending it by hiring customer service agents to answer their phone calls. Up until now, the term “customer service” and “IRS” did not go together at all. Currently, only 1 in 10 calls make it through to speak with an actual person.
The IRS is also spending the new influx in cash will help the agency with improved technology—only after it gets to the backlog of millions of tax refunds. However, new, improved tech from the Biden administration could help to improve the auditing process helping to ensure that those with zero tax issues get audited.
Data Leaks Don’t Just Happen to the IRS
Anytime large organizations hold tons of personal info, there is a risk of sensitive data getting into the wrong hands—or seen by the wrong eyes. Data leaks are not intrinsic to the IRS alone.
Technology companies, Facebook and Twitter have suffered at the hands of many leaks. Sometimes, the leaks come from a more innocent reason rather than a simple coding error. As Tell Me Best had reported, Twitter, was recently sued for leaking personal data (on purpose) to adverting platforms. However, a recent accidental leak by Samsung, as reported by Tell Me Best, was performed by hackers as they grabbed over 200 gigabytes of confidential data.
