IRS Employee Takes Home 20,000 Other Employees Information

Posted on April 03, 2014

The steady drumbeat of bad news about the IRS continues.

An IRS employee recently used an unencrypted thumb drive containing the names, Social Security numbers and addresses of IRS employees, former employees and contracted employees in an unsecured home network, making that information potentially accessible to third parties online.

The unencrypted thumb drive contained sensitive information of about 20,000 people, most of whom no longer work for the IRS. Although there is no direct evidence that the personal employee information has been used for identity theft or other inappropriate uses, the IRS will mail letters to the affected individuals providing further details and explaining steps on how to protect themselves.

The IRS will also provide one year of free identity theft monitoring and will put a marker on their tax accounts to identify any potential vulnerability. It seems that even the IRS and its employees are not immune from identity theft problems.

We handle identity theft cases all the time, however it’s not usually a IRS employee that needs our assistance.

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