Report: IRS breach originated in Russia

The Internal Revenue Service believes Russian hackers were behind the digital theft of over 100,000 people’s tax returns, CNN reported.

The IRS revealed Tuesday that cyber crooks, likely part of an organized crime syndicate, had accessed returns for roughly 104,000 taxpayers through the agency’s “Get Transcript” feature.

{mosads}Two people briefed on the breach told CNN they suspect the breach originated in Russia.

Russian hackers, possibly backed by Moscow, are widely thought responsible for infiltrating the White House and State Department last fall.

More broadly, Russia is seen as a major cyber adversary of the U.S., shielding many of the top digital crooks from U.S. authorities.

In the IRS incident, the digital thieves didn’t actually break into the agency’s network. Instead, they gained access by imitating individuals, using data collected from the massive cache of personal information dumped on the dark Web following the rash of data breaches over the last year.

The method was effective. The hackers were successful in over half of their attempts to access the returns, raising questions about the IRS’s security measures.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday that his committee was investigating how electronic tax preparation services are being targeted for fraud and identity theft.

“This concern will only be amplified due to the recent IRS breach,” he wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.