The trend of people suing companies and government agencies deemed responsible for data breaches due to their failing to take proper steps to protect personal information they hold continues to accelerate with the recent filing of a proposed class action on behalf of the approximately 330,000 people affected by the recent data breach of the IRS’ Get Transcript program about which I have reported to you a number of times here at Scamicide.  Go to the Archives for more information about this particular data breach.  According to Richard McCune, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, “As custodians of taxpayer information, the IRS has failed in its obligation to protect the personal and sensitive information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, their spouses and families.  Furthermore, the breach and theft occurred after repeated warnings over the course of several years regarding the lax computer security system.”

TIPS

If you were affected by this data breach and want more information about the lawsuit, you can contact McCuneWright, one of the law firms that filed the lawsuit by clicking on this link.

http://mccunewright.com/contact/

As for the rest of us, the best things you can do to protect yourself from  income tax identity theft is to protect the privacy of your Social Security number and file your income tax return as early as possible to prevent an identity thief from filing one using your name and Social Security number before you get a chance to file your legitimate return.