Thousands of US taxpayers may have had their details leaked by the IRS
Names, contact information, and financial information may have been compromised
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hasrevealedit inadvertently exposed the data of approximately 120,000 US taxpayers.
The agency says that all of the offending information has now been removed from its website, and it will send notifications to all those impacted within the coming weeks.
The leak impacted users of a specific type of business tax return, Form 990-T, used by tax-exempt entities such as charities and retirement accounts, to pay income tax on income that is generated from investments or unrelated to their primary purpose.
What was revealed?
The leak included names, contact information, and financial information about income within the impacted accounts, according to the agency’s statement, however, it reportedly didn’t contain Social Security numbers, complete individual income information, detailed financial account data, or other “sensitive information that could impact a taxpayer’s credit”.
This isn’t the first time the IRS has struggled with data protection issues.
Investigative journalism organizationProPublicapublished IRS data relating to some of the wealthiest individuals in the US such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, and the source of the leak is as of yet unknown.
Unsurprisingly, most data breaches are caused by hacking>Marriott suffers yet another data breach>Our guide to the best endpoint protection
However, the agency’s IT systems andtax softwarecould soon be in for a huge improvement.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
In August 2022, US President Joe Biden signed off an additional $80 billion of funding for the IRS, part of which was earmarked to help overhaul its IT systems and to hire experienced new technology specialists.
But it’s not just the IRS that has leaked data in recent months, it seems all types of organizations, big and small are vulnerable to data leaks.
The data ofover 2.5 million individuals who have taken out student loanswith either the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) or EdFinancial has been exposed in a data breach as a result of a third-party IT provider becoming compromised.
Will McCurdy has been writing about technology for over five years. He has a wide range of specialities including cybersecurity, fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence, retail technology, and venture capital investment. He has previously written for AltFi, FStech, Retail Systems, and National Technology News and is an experienced podcast and webinar host, as well as an avid long-form feature writer.
Windows PCs targeted by new malware hitting a vulnerable driver
Dangerous Android banking malware looks to trick victims with fake money transfers
Latest Google Pixel update includes surprise launch of Android 15’s best battery feature
