FAFSA Tool Taken Offline After Breach Report

  /     /     /  
Publicated : 22/11/2024   Category : security


FAFSA Tool Taken Offline After Breach Report


Personal data of 100,000 taxpayers compromised after IRS’ students financial aid tool hacked.



The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has said that personal data of nearly 100,000 taxpayers may have been compromised by a breach of its tool to apply for student financial aid, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) tool was taken offline in March after discovery of suspicious activity, and will be operational only in October.
In a statement to the Senate Finance Committee, IRS chief John Koskinen said 35,000 affected people had been notified of the breach and $30 million been paid for around 8,000 fraudulent tax refunds.
The IRS has come under fire for cutting off the tool and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, urged authorities to “continue to prioritize getting the helpful data-retrieval tool back online quickly with adequate protection for users’ data.”
The agency admits being made aware in September last year that FAFSA could be misused by hackers.
“To shut it down without a clear indication of criminals actually using it seemed to us that it was going to unnecessarily disadvantage millions of people who used it,” Koskinen clarified, says The Wall Street Journal.
Read full story
here
.

Last News

▸ Researchers create BlackForest to gather, link threat data. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ Travel agency fined £150,000 for breaking Data Protection Act. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ 7 arrested, 3 more charged in StubHub cyber fraud ring. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security


Cyber Security Categories
Google Dorks Database
Exploits Vulnerability
Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List
Tools/Apps
News/Aarticles

Phishing Database
Deepfake Detection
Trends/Statistics & Live Infos



Tags:
FAFSA Tool Taken Offline After Breach Report