IRS hack may have affected over 700,000 people

In May of last year, we reported a story that hackers had stolen sensitive tax information from over 100,000 taxpayers. By August, the IRS had revised its estimate to report the number affected may have been as high as 330,000.

Today, in its latest revision, the IRS claims that the number could be 700,000, more than double its revised estimate.

The hack gave attackers access to entire tax returns from previous filings through an IRS application called “Get Transcript,” a feature that has been offline since the vulnerability was found last May.

Hackers using this vulnerability were able to recover entire income statements, social security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and other sensitive information normally found on tax return documents.

➤ Hack Brief: Last Year’s IRS Hack Was Way Worse Than We Realized [Wired]