It probably seemed harmless last year to give a big shout out on your Facebook page to your first grade teacher. Unfortunately, cyber-thieves can use that information to steal your identity and break into your online accounts.
That’s what happened to the IRS. The tax agency is the latest target of cyber criminals who used so-called knowledge-based authentication information to illegally access the tax returns of about 100,000 U.S. taxpayers.
The breach at the IRS is particularly onerous because the information included on tax returns is especially detailed and personal – information that includes back account numbers, childrens’ names and ages, health care expenses, addresses of various residences, etc…
Knowledge-based authentication is commonly used by Web sites as an added measure beyond Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Account holders are asked questions such as their mother’s maiden name or the name of their first grade teacher or the account holder’s favorite color. In other words questions whose answers only the account user would know.
“Those are the same questions when resetting a password and they pop up in a variety of places,” said Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert with BestIDTheftcompanys.com.
The problem is that much of that information can be gleaned from account user’s social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, where people tend to post every detail of their life, including their mother’s maiden name, the name of their first grade teacher and their favorite color.
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