IRS Admits Data Breach Was Much Worse Than Reported

The IRS also identified another 170,000 suspected failed attempts by third parties to gain access to taxpayer data, it said.

“Since May, the IRS conducted a deeper analysis over a wider time period covering the 2015 filing season, analysing more than 23 million uses of the “Get Transcript” system”. The hackers were able to clear security screens requiring the person’s Social Security Number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address, officials said.

These taxpayers will be offered a year of free credit protection and other things like “special identification numbers” to lower the odds of tax fraud.

The hackers had access to tax return information of about 100,000 US taxpayers.

WASHINGTON-The Internal Revenue Service said identity thieves’ penetration of one of its computer databases was much more extensive than previously reported, with more than 300,000 taxpayer accounts potentially affected and more than 600,000 breaches attempted.

The system, which allows U.S. citizens to download tax returns and view tax payments, was disabled shortly after the breach.

In its Monday statement, the agency also suggested that thieves might not have been behind all of the 220,000 uses of the “Get Transcript” system but didn’t say how many accounts were compromised.

The IRS announced today that it underestimated the amount of taxpayer data that was stolen months ago when hackers got into its online Get Transript tool.

As a result, the IRS will start mailing out notice letters to the newly affected households.

“Unfortunately, the high number of large-scale data breaches has essentially transformed our personal information into public information; and this data should not be used as security or authentication checks”, he said.

Both the Treasury inspector general for tax administration and IRS Criminal Investigation are continuing to review the theft.

On Monday, the IRS did not identify a potential source of the crime.

The IRS paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent refunds in 2013, according to the Associated Press.