IRS Warns Information of 100,000 Financial Aid Applicants May Have Been Stolen
(from April 14)
While testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said information of up to 100,000 taxpayers may have been stolen in a security breach of an online tool used to apply for federal student aid.
The IRS identified suspicious activity in the files of people using a data retrieval tool as they filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The tool lets applicants upload tax-return information, but after 8,000 fraudulent refunds the IRS disabled the tool.
FAFSA did not disable the tool after warning from the IRS until October. This year, FAFSA opened earlier than usual, so only those that applied in October are vulnerable.
There is an ongoing investigation into the breach.
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