IRS says hackers who stole info are ‘not amateurs’

The agency’s response to a breach involving data from 100,000 taxpayers is to play up the seriousness of the criminals involved.

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The Internal Revenue Service will try to gain back the public’s trust after a major data breach that saw roughly 100,000 accounts compromised.

The breach was part of an attempt to steal taxpayers’ identities in order to claim fraudulent tax refunds. IRS commissioner John Koskinen addressed the breach this week.

“We’re confident that these are not amateurs,” Koskinen told the Associated Press. “These actually are organized crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the financial industry are dealing with.”

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