Breach Exposes I.R.S. Tax Returns

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/business/breach-exposes-irs-tax-returns.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — Criminals used stolen data to gain access to past tax returns of more than 100,000 people through an application on the Internal Revenue Service’s website, the agency said on Tuesday.

Using Social Security numbers, birth dates, street addresses and other personal information obtained elsewhere, the criminals completed a multistep authentication process and requested the tax returns and other filings, the I.R.S. said. Information from those returns was used to file fraudulent returns, the I.R.S. said, and the agency sent nearly $50 million in refunds before it detected the scheme.

“We’re confident that these are not amateurs,” John Koskinen, the I.R.S. commissioner, said. “These actually are organized crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the financial industry are dealing with.”

The agency has opened an investigation into the breach and has temporarily shut down the Get Transcript application, which was used to gain access to the information. More than 200,000 attempts to view the past returns using stolen information were made from February to mid-May, and about half were successful. It is unclear whether the criminals were operating inside or outside the United States.