It’s that time of year. Time when you pull out those overstuffed boxes of receipts, statements, and scraps of paper that contain your last year’s life history of finances. Time to look for every single deduction you can find, including that trip to your local Goodwill Store when you cleaned out the closet. It’s also a time when the bad guys try to find ways to see how they can trick you into revealing your inner most secrets by getting you to log into a nefarious website. So, wouldn’t it be a good time to also up your security game?
Think about it. Your tax return contains a lot of personal information that could give a malicious actor enough to take over your accounts. There’s your name and address, possibly your phone number. Then, there’s your occupation and information about your accounts. Most importantly, there’s your social security number, the key to your tax return and often the key to account identification. How often have you found companies asking for either your SSN or the last 4 digits of it? I think you see what I mean..
So, let’s talk about protections. If you go old school and file your taxes on forms manually, you’re pretty much protected. After all, there’s really no digital trace of your information other than with the IRS or your state tax office. But how many of us really file taxes the old fashioned way any more? If you use a tax preparation service, you should be able to trust them. Fortunately, the IRS and FTC have been diligent in helping tax preparers secure their clients’ information. If you have more questions, refer to this FAQ from the IRS.
But what if you use an online tax service like TurboTax or H&R Block? In the case of TurboTax, one of the best security controls you can add is multifactor authentication. I use the Google Authenticator app to generate the one-time code used in addition to my password. That prevents someone from logging into my account even if they have my password for some odd reason. I’m pretty sure H&R Block offer the same service. I strongly encourage you to set that up. With regard to your information stored at the providers, they have gone to great lengths to secure the information from breaches.
I still add one piece of security for my information that makes it even harder for the bad guys. When I start to file every year, I change the password to include the tax year I’m filing for. I already use a password that’s unique to TurboTax. This prevent someone getting my password from a breach somewhere else and using it to access my account. Secondly, it makes sure my password is unique from year to year. Finally, adding the year strengthens the password by lengthening it.
Taking these measures gives me assurance my tax information is safe and secure with my tax provider. Storing it in their cloud provides another level of security for me in that I don’t have it lingering around for someone to find on my computer. The bottom line is the more diligent we are about our information, the less chance the bad guys can make our lives miserable through information theft.