IRS Warns Practitioners of Attacks on Tax Professional Computers

The IRS released IR 2016-119 which details approximately two dozen cases where a tax practitioner had their computer taken over remotely by criminals in order to file fraudulent returns.


The IRS recommends all tax practitioners do the following:

• "Run a security “deep scan” to search for viruses and malware;
• Strengthen passwords for both computer access and software access; make sure your password is a minimum of eight digits (more is better) with a mix of numbers, letters and special characters and change them often;
• Be alert for phishing scams: do not click on links or open attachments from unknown senders;
• Educate all staff members about the dangers of phishing scams in the form of emails, texts and calls;
• Review any software that your employees use to remotely access your network and/or your IT support vendor uses to remotely troubleshoot technical problems and support your systems. Remote access software is a potential target for bad actors to gain entry and take control of a machine."

Relevant Citations: IR 2016-119