IG: IRS Employees Sent Unencrypted Emails Containing Personal Data of Thousands of Taxpayers

A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that IRS employees sent unencrypted emails which contained 8,031 different taxpayers’ personally identifiable information.

According to the report, TIGTA found 326 unencrypted emails containing taxpayer data. 275 of the emails were sent internally within IRS, while 51 emails were sent outside of the agency’s network to non-IRS email accounts. Of those emails sent externally, 20 were sent to six IRS employees’ personal email accounts.