"Watch Out: Tax Crooks Are Phishing for Your W-2 Form"

January through April is tax season in the US, during which businesses and employees fill in W-2 forms for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Threat actors try to steal the W-2 forms, which legitimate employees use. According to the IRS' Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), the number of reports of suspicious activity related to tax refunds quadrupled to eight million in 2022 compared to 2021. Kevin Kirkwood, the deputy CISO at LogRhythm and a cybersecurity expert, emphasizes that malicious actors exploit tax season to launch spear-phishing attacks with a single target in mind: the W-2 form. Kirkwood explains that stealing W-2 forms can be profitable since cybercriminals can use them to file fake tax returns and receive reimbursement for payments they never made. Criminals often impersonate a company's chief executive or other trustworthy employees in these attacks. The article continues to discuss what a tax-season phishing campaign looks like, as well as what businesses and employees should look out for to avoid falling victim to such attacks. 

Cybernews reports "Watch Out: Tax Crooks Are Phishing for Your W-2 Form"