IRS launches cyber awareness campaign focused on tax preparers

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Wednesday rolled out its first fact sheet in a series of awareness efforts aimed at ensuring that tax-return preparers protect their clients’ personal information from cyber criminals.

{mosads}The IRS and leaders from state tax agencies and the tax preparation community are warning tax preparers that they are increasingly the targets of cyberattacks as part of their Security Summit. The campaign centered on tax preparers will run through the beginning of the 2017 tax-filing season, the agency said.

“We have more than 700,000 tax preparers in this country, with many of those taking good security precautions,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in a news release. “But cybercriminals are continuing to evolve, using new technology, ruses and scams.

“The tax community handles large volumes of sensitive personal and financial information. We need every tax professional to stay on top of their security to protect taxpayers as well as their businesses,” he said.

The fact sheet urges tax preparers to take steps to safeguard data, such as ensuring that information is not left unsecured, requiring strong passwords on tax-software programs and ensuring emails that contain taxpayer data are encrypted.