So it turns out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data breach reported earlier this year has actually resulted in the exposure of over 340,000 social security numbers and dates of birth.  That is more than double the 140,000 number the IRS calculated earlier in May.  What kind of security system are they using? (And what kind of calculating are they doing for that matter?)  My goodness.  This is horrible. With all of the resources available to the IRS, how does something like this even happen?

I think if you have been diligent in protecting your identity, only to have your personal information compromised by the Internal Revenue Service, there should be some type of benefit or compensation provided to you.  Perhaps you don’t owe taxes for a while.  Maybe you get a one-time free pass in the event of an IRS audit.  How can the IRS purport to hold you liable for accounting errors, when they can’t keep your private information private? (and when they under calculate the actual affected taxpayers by 200,000!)  The first word of their name alone, internal, suggests a level of secrecy and confidentiality.

I mean come on IRS.  Do we have to wink or use finger quotations after saying the word “internal” in IRS?  That makes no sense.  The IRS is situated well within the data world.  As such, the IRS knows or should know that hackers are a problem in the computer age.  Don’t tell us that these hackers will be brought to justice swiftly.  Instead, tell me how this happened and what you will be doing to prevent it from happening again. If we have private companies using some of the most encrypted security systems in the world, why isn’t the IRS doing the same? Step your game up IRS, before you have more taxpayers disliking you for other reasons.