The Internal Revenue Service confirmed Tuesday that its website had been used by a “sophisticated” gang of criminals to steal data on 104,000 American taxpayers.
The Internal Revenue Service confirmed Tuesday that its website had been used by a “sophisticated” gang of criminals to steal data on 104,000 American taxpayers. The breach used a feature of the site called “Get Transcript” which allows users to download multiple tax forms which can be required when applying for a mortgage for example. CNN reports that the thieves attempted to download 200,000 forms and succeeded with around half; 15,000 were then used to apply for tax refunds. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen believes that the main purpose of the attack was to gain financial information that could be used to open lines of credit and bank accounts.
