How to Stay Protected During Tax Season

Tax season is upon us, and as individuals and companies alike start gathering their information, it is important to remember to stay protected while filling out personal, tax, and financial data at home and online. Due to the nature of the information reported during tax season, people continually become victims of cybertheft carried out by cybercriminals looking to steal social security numbers, account numbers, password information and other sensitive information. Below are several tips to help you stay better protected while filing taxes this season.

• Check for encryption on websites when filing your taxes online. Look for a small lock icon somewhere on your browser and URLs that begin with “https:” This means the site is secured and your data is encrypted.
• Make sure your security software is up-to-date, regardless of if you are using a computer or mobile device.
• Encrypt sensitive files such as tax records, account numbers, etc. that you store on your computer. Also, make sure you your social security card and tax records are kept in a safe place in their physical forms.
• Phishing attacks are more frequent than ever and are projected to be one of the top methods for cybercriminals to carry out scams this season. Learn to recognize and avoid phishing emails, threatening calls, and texts from thieves posing as legitimate organizations such as your bank, credit card company, and even the IRS. The IRS will NOT email you. Be cautious on what links you click on and don’t download attachments from unknown or suspicious emails.
• Don’t respond to emails that claim to be from the IRS (or any other company) requesting your account details. Do not ever send personal information or credit card information via email. It is best to call back instead using a phone number you can verify from their official website.
• If you are filing your taxes online using a computer, think about where you are doing it from. For example, by using public Wi-Fi, it’s rather simple for someone to intercept your data in a man-in-the-middle attack. It is advisable to use your own Wi-Fi network that is setup with password protection when filing your taxes online. If you can’t file your taxes at home, you can still check your account on the go, just make sure your device is using cellular data instead of Wi-Fi.
• If you are using an online tax software to file your taxes, make sure you use strong passwords for your account. Create a password that can’t be easily guessed by a human or computer. This typically means a password with 8 or more characters, including letters, numbers and symbols. It is also advisable to use different user IDs and passwords for your financial accounts and for any other sites you use online.
• Sign out when you finish filing your taxes online. This may sound easy, but you should always log out of your online session rather than let it expire. This will help reduce the chances of your session being hacked. Most site will log you out automatically after you are idle for a couple of minutes, but logging out is still a good habit.