Monthly Security brief
IRS and Tax Prep Software Applications Breached!
Tax season is stressful enough without the added concern that your personal information could be stolen. Just this past Tuesday, the IRS became aware of an automated cyber-attack directed at their e-filing system. Fortunately, they were able to stop the attack before any personal taxpayer information was compromised.
Recently, two tax preparation software publishers discovered that hackers had targeted the personal information of their users. TaxSlayer had to notify 8,800 customers last week that an unnamed third party may have gotten hold of the personal information on their tax returns. As a result, the company is attempting to make things right by offering these customers free credit monitoring and $1 million in identity theft insurance for a full year.
Another tax software company, TaxAct, announced they suspended less than one quarter of 1% of their customer accounts after they found suspicious activity. Again, an unnamed and unauthorized third party seems to be to blame. Although they were able to halt this early on, they are also offering a year of free credit monitoring and $1 million in insurance reimbursement to their customers.
Medical Data Breaches Expected To Be Even Higher In 2016
When we think of medical data breaches, we think of the personal health information (PHI) of patients being stolen, as in last year’s Anthem Insurance hack. But, as in any organization, the personal information of employees can also be targeted. Already this year, NCH Healthcare systems, which has two hospitals in the Naples, Florida area, informed employees that their personal information, stored in off-site servers, had been accessed by unauthorized personnel. It’s too soon to know if any of this information has been misused, but as a precaution NCH is giving affected employees free credit monitoring.
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Time Warner Cable Targeted By Phishing Attack
Email hacking is nothing new, but when a giant like Time Warner Cable (TWC) is hacked, it results in as many as 320,000 customers having their personal information stolen. Although TWC has not named the party responsible for the phishing attack leading up to the breach, it has contacted customers who may have been affected to recommend they change their email passwords.
First Lawsuit Filed Following Chip Scanner Deadline
With the United States joining in the migration to EMV chip payment cards, consumers are hopeful that their payment card transactions will be more secure than ever. But, with only about 40% of cards used by U.S consumers having the chips and approximately only 25% of merchants being EMV compliant, the shift will take some time.
Recently, some customers of the fast food chain Wendy’s began to find unusual activity after using their payment cards there. A patron in Orlando, Florida was the first to file a class action lawsuit against the chain.
SentreeGuard protects your critical data from being breached. For more information on how to guard against having your personal information stolen, read our eBook; Identity Thieves, Hackers and Crooks, Oh My!
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