The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has acknowledged that it unintentionally exposed the information of some 120,000 US taxpayers.
The organisation claims that all of the problematic material has been taken off from its website and that it will notify everyone affected in the upcoming weeks.
Users of Form 990-T, a particular kind of company tax return used by tax-exempt institutions like charities and retirement accounts to pay income tax on income derived from investments or unrelated to their principal purpose, were impacted by the leak.
What was made known?
According to the agency's statement, the leak exposed names, contact information, and financial data about income from the impacted accounts; however, it reportedly did not expose Social Security numbers, comprehensive individual income data, detailed financial account information, or other "sensitive information that could impact a taxpayer's credit."
The IRS has encountered problems with data protection before.
The source of the leak is still unknown, but the investigative journalism company ProPublica revealed IRS data pertaining to some of the wealthiest people in the US, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
However, there may soon be a significant upgrade to the agency's tax software and IT infrastructure.
The IRS received an additional $80 billion in funds in August 2022, part of which was designated to help modernise its IT infrastructure and pay for the hiring of skilled new technology specialists. US President Joe Biden approved the funding.
However, it appears that all companies, large and small, are susceptible to data leaks as the IRS is not the only organisation to have exposed data in recent months.
A third-party IT provider's security breach exposed the information of approximately 2.5 million people who have obtained student loans from either the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) or EdFinancial.
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