From “IBM Report Details 2017 Tax Scams as IRS Filing Deadline Nears”
eWeek (04/05/17) Kerner, Sean Michael. Printed by ASIS International.
IBM Security is warning of an increase in tax-related spam email and related fraud scams that aim to exploit tax filers as the April 18 tax filing deadline nears. IBM’s “Cybercrime Riding Tax Season Tides: Trending Spam and Dark Web Findings” report, released on April 5, details how attackers are increasing their efforts ahead of the deadline. IBM X-Force security researchers have tracked a 6,000 percent increase in tax-related spam emails from December 2016 to February 2017. Limor Kessem, executive security advisor at IBM Security, says that this is the first year that IBM is seeing campaigns targeting businesses. “Last year, consumer tax fraud was the most common illicit activity linked with compromised taxpayer information,” she says. “This year, things are getting bigger and bolder.” She went on to say that attackers have several different ways to get taxpayer information, depending on their technical skill levels. “The more technically inclined may breach a company’s infrastructure to steal data directly from their internal servers,” she explains.
Gregory M. Schmidt, CPP, PSP, CHPA 