- An unknown number of Squar Milner clients may have had their personal data accessed by malicious actors.
- The potentially compromised individuals had their names, addresses, SSNs, and Tax ID numbers exposed.
- The accounting firm is now offering a complete set of identity and data protection services for free.
‘Squar Milner’ is circulating notices regarding a data security incident that has potentially exposed the personal information of an undisclosed number of its clients. It is one of the biggest accounting firms in the United States, offering auditing, tax consultation, wealth management, estate valuation, CFO advisory, and bankruptcy services. They are covering nine US states, so they have served a large number of people and maintain a sizable clientele.
On March 25, 2020, the accounting firm realized that something had happened when they faced an inexplicable technical problem relating to the processing of a client’s tax returns. Upon further investigation, they figured that someone had managed to steal the login credentials of the client and then reset them. In a few hours, they found several similar cases concerning a hacker who accessed the accounts of customers without authorization. Whether or not this was a successful stuffing attack or a data breach that happened on Squar Milner’s systems hasn’t been clarified by the relevant announcement.
The type of information that has been possibly accessed by the network infiltrators include the following:
- Full names
- Addresses
- Social Security numbers
- Tax ID numbers
- IRS filling information
- Submissions made to the state taxing authorities
As the above information is very revealing, it introduces a set of serious risks for the company’s clients. These would include identity theft, bank fraud, phishing, and scamming. For this reason, Squar Milner is now covering the costs of 12 months of credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, and identity recovery services for the exposed individuals. If you have received the notification, you should call “1-833-979-2227” to get in touch with ID Experts and follow their instructions on how to enter the program. The deadline for this is July 17, 2020, but you should better act immediately for your own safety. In case your information makes it to the dark web, the service will cover reimbursement of up to $1 million, so you wouldn’t want to miss that.
Additionally, you may impose a credit file security freeze as a precautionary measure, which, in this case, wouldn’t be an excessive or an asymmetric response. To do that, call the IRS Identity Protection Unit at “1-800-908-4490,” and they’ll help you go through the process.