The Most Terrifying Words in the English Language Strike Again

One of my favorite quotes is from President Ronald Reagan:

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

Yet another instance of this appears to be striking with the IRS.

Kristy Maitre of the Iowa Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (at Iowa State University) reports tonight that scammers have apparently been able to crash the IRS’s online IP PIN system. This shouldn’t be a shock; as Kristy notes a TIGTA report released in December (though not on their website) and a Tax Analysts analysis highlighted this vulnerability.

This new vulnerability hits taxpayers whose lives have already been thrown in disarray by one identity theft case. Now they may have a second identity theft case. (If they’re lucky, the first case has been resolved by now.)

The only solution is for the IRS to shut down this vulnerability immediately. I’m not holding my breath, though, on that happening soon.

It’s apparent that the IRS needs to go back to square one in regards to their information technology. After all, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016 at 7:45 pm and is filed under IRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “The Most Terrifying Words in the English Language Strike Again”

  1. Bozo Tax Tip #10: Email Your Social Security Number! « Taxable Talk says:
    April 1, 2016 at 1:27 am

    […] the problem of identity theft has burgeoned, and the IRS’s response is pitiful. Indeed, this year the IRS decided that identity theft victims should get hit a second time! Let’s hear it for the IRS’s wonderful view of […]