The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that attackers used an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) system called “Get Transcript” in order to obtain information belonging more than 100,000 taxpayers.
The data accessed included tax returns and other tax information on file with the IRS, and the attackers got to it by getting past a security screen that requires taxpayer Social Security numbers, addresses and more, the report stated.
The IRS said the system – which has been temporarily shut down – was targeted from February to the middle of May, and that more than 100,000 of 200,000 attempts made from questionable email domains were successful, according to the report.
The report noted that the IRS issue does not involve the main computer system used for handling tax filing submissions.
An IRS spokesperson was not immediately able to provide additional information to SCMagazine.com.
