IRS Says the Number of Cyber Attack Victims Is Double Previous Estimates

According to a report released by the IRS, taxpayer account data for about 700,000 households may have been stolen—more than double the 334,000 that the IRS had originally estimated. The breach, which occurred via a vulnerability in the IRS’s “Get Transcript” application, was discovered last May and caused a subsequent nine-month investigation. The IRS warns that this revised estimate could lead to an increased number of fraudulent tax returns, and the agency is in the process of informing the taxpayers who are likely to have been affected.