IRS Offers Cybersecurity Tips, IR-2023-200

The IRS and Security Summit partners reminded taxpayers to remain vigilant against potential cybersecurity threats. As the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is wrapped up, taxpayers were encouraged to be wary of putting their personal information at risk from criminals while surfing the social media sites or online shopping. To protect themselves against these security vulnerabilities, the Service urged taxpayers to review the resources available as October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month concludes.

In recognition of October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness focus, the IRS provided online safety tips to help safeguard against cybersecurity attacks and adviced taxpayers to:

• beware of unsolicited email and social media to discuss personal tax issues. Report scams and phishing;
• refrain from revealing personal and sensitive information online. Encrypt sensitive files such as tax records stored on computers;
• use strong passwords and consider using a password manager to store passwords;
• enable multi-factor authentication (MFA);
• enable automatic updates to install critical security updates on phones and computers;
• use security software such as anti-virus and firewall protections; and
• use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when connecting to public Wi-Fi.