Oversight
IRS missed 11,000 compromised SSNs
An IRS office charged with monitoring and mitigating the impact of external data breaches on taxpayers is faltering when it comes to keeping track of the problem, according to a new audit by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
In 70 external breaches, the office failed to follow internal guidelines by requesting Taxpayer Identification Numbers of affected users. As a result, more than 11,000 Social Security numbers weren’t flagged to the IRS’ Dynamic Selection List for added identity protections.
The IRS keeps tabs on external data breaches of private companies and other entities, which collect personally identifiable information that taxpayers use to file their returns. The Office of Return Integrity and Compliance Services is charged with collecting known instances of such breaches in an internal IRS database, reporting them and cross-referencing the data with attempts by criminals and fraudsters to use that information to commit identity theft or file false returns.
