With more people working from home, the IRS warns tax professionals and other service providers to take additional security steps to protect private data.
The IRS has been seeing an increase in data thefts as cyberhackers try to take advantage of COVID-19 and Economic Impact Payments to create tax scams. The IRS strongly recommends the following steps to protect important information.
- Use a Virtual Private Network for security. A VPN provides a secure encrypted method for transmitting data between a remote user through the Internet and the company network.
- Multi-Factor Authentication for data protection. Multi-factor authentication means a user to a software product must enter both credentials (user name/password) and a security code usually sent via text to a mobile phone. If login credentials are compromised, the nefarious individual could not log in unless the person had access to the mobile phone.
- Avoid phishing scams. Identify the sender of an email before being tricked into providing information.
- Watch out for IRS impersonation scams. The IRS does not call, email or text about Economic Impact Payments.
- Remember security software. Remember your mobile phone when implementing security software.
