IRS Says Thieves Stole Tax Info From 100,000

[Jeffrey]

The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called "Get Transcript." In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStor ... 0-31317464

[NYGman]

Just posted this in another thread, but from BNA:

Identity Thieves Received Private Data of Up to 104,000 From IRS
Posted May 26, 2015, 4:30 P.M. ET
Identity thieves used an IRS system to get access to information on 104,000 taxpayers, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said.
Koskinen, who announced the breach during a conference call with reporters, said the thieves were able to access past tax returns through the “Get Transcript” function on the IRS's website using some personal information they had already obtained.
The IRS commissioner said the agency will be providing credit monitoring services to affected individuals and won't be putting the transcript function back into use until security is improved

[Judge Roy Bean]

And here's just one way it is used:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/pho ... -everyone/