The Internal Revenue Service missed over 100,000 people whose information was stolen as a result of a data breach, failing to properly assist the affected taxpayers, the federal agency’s inspector general says.
A report released Wednesday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says that more than 350,000 people had their information compromised in an early 2015 hack, while the IRS only initially counted about 220,000.
The hack targeted the agency’s Get Transcript system, which allows taxpayers to view their records over the internet. By impersonating the actual owners of these accounts, identity thieves managed to get their hands on the sensitive information of countless Americans.
Get Transcript was disabled following the hack and was only reopened earlier this week. The IRS says that the new iteration of the application will feature strengthened security measures, such as requiring users to answer personal questions and verify logins by mobile phone message.
“While the IRS acted swiftly to disable its application upon learning of the data breach, our auditors found that it did not identify all taxpayers who were potentially affected, and whose tax information was at risk of being used by unauthorized individuals,” said J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, according to The Washington Times.