Member-only story
Our Identities Are at Risk of Being Stolen!
We needed to take action, and fast
It was five weeks ago when I received the call. The local accounting firm we’d worked with for years on our U.S. federal and state taxes had its computer systems hacked.
Our accountant told me they’d responded quickly to the breach, and that only 11 clients’ data had been compromised (read: stolen).
We were one of those 11.
The hackers had accessed all 86 pages the firm prepared for our electronic tax filings, and had already fraudulently filed our federal tax return, redirecting what would be our largest refund ever from our bank to theirs.
Worse, within all those pages of documentation were our social security numbers, our ages, our address and the names of several important financial accounts we maintain, although no full account numbers were exposed.
Four hours after receiving the initial call, my wife and I solemnly marched into the accounting office, with dismay evident on our faces.
We were presented with affidavits that needed to be signed for us to eFile with the state of California, and re-file a (valid) paper federal tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — a government agency that’s very publicly been under attack by the current…
