14 DAY TRIAL // The IRS has issued a public advisory to recommend tax professionals and taxpayers to enable multi-factor authentication on tax preparation software applications to prevent data thefts.
The organization says it has already become aware of nearly two dozen data theft incidents, adding that it worked together with partners particularly to implement such capabilities in the tax software products.
“The IRS, state tax agencies and the private-sector tax industry have worked together as the Security Summit to make sure the multi-factor authentication feature is available to practitioners and taxpayers alike,” said Kenneth Corbin, Commissioner of the IRS Wage and Investment division. “The multi-factor authentication feature is simple to set up and easy to use. Using it may just save you from the financial pain and frustration of identity theft.”
Phishing scams
Additionally, the IRS also warns of phishing scams that are typically on the rise during this time of the year, as cybercriminals attempt to steal taxpayers’ information with emails that look legitimate.
“Thieves may claim to be a potential client, a cloud storage provider, a tax software provider or even the IRS in their effort to trick tax professionals to download attachments or open links. These scams often have an urgent message, implying there are issues with the tax professionals' accounts that need immediate attention,” the IRS notes.
Back in 2019, data published by Google showed that two-factor authentication was capable of blocking 100 percent of the automated bot hacks, as well as a total of 96 percent of the bulk phishing attacks. What’s more, the typical hack attacks that are aimed at an individual and which involve an actual human being trying to break into others’ accounts are 76 percent less efficient if two-factor authentication was enabled, Google said.
The steps to enable two-factor authentication are different from one application to another, and taxpayers are recommended to check out the documentation offered by the software developer for more information in this regard.