2021 National Cyber Security Awareness Tips

By Mark Castro, CPA
December 8, 2021

As the 2022 filing season approaches, the IRS, states, and tax industry are warning taxpayers and tax preparers to remain vigilant due to the constantly evolving threats and scams from fraudsters. These ever-evolving threats and scams can mimic the IRS and others in the tax community with fake emails, texts, and online scams. They can lurk underneath COVID-related messages, stimulus payments, or tax refunds. And they are frequently using recent tragedies or charitable groups to trick people into sharing their sensitive financial data.

National Cyber Security Awareness Week

As part of their awareness effort, the IRS held their 6th Annual National Security Awareness Week between November 29 and December 3, 2021. The goal of this awareness effort was to offer basic security guidance for individual taxpayers, tax preparers, and business taxpayers to protect themselves and their tax information from tax-related identity theft.
This year, the IRS is emphasizing the following subjects related to security and how taxpayers and tax preparers can protect themselves from identity thieves:

• Protecting your personal and financial information online which includes how to your phone
• Common scams and tips to avoid falling for them
• Availability and importance of taxpayers getting an Identity Protection PIN
• Reminder that scammers use fake charities to get sensitive information
• Recommending that tax preparers use digital signatures to submit IRS authorization forms
• Small businesses need to implement security safeguards and be aware of steps to help prevent and protect from data loss

National Cyber Security Awareness Toolkits

The 2021 National Security Awareness Week page on the IRS website also offers the following resources and information:

• Tax Tips for tax preparers
• Links to posters on the topics covered by this year’s National Security Awareness week
• Videos on security topics for tax preparers

See the following on the IRS, FTC and NIST websites for more information on what tax preparers and taxpayers can do to protect themselves from identity thieves:

• IRS: Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts
• IRS: Identity Theft Information for Tax Professionals
• IRS: Taxes-Security-Together Checklist for tax professionals
• IRS: Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself
• IRS: Publication 4557 (Safeguarding Taxpayer Data)
• IRS: Publication 5923 (Data Theft Resource Guide for Tax Professionals)
• FTC: Protecting Personal Information a Guide for Business
• FTC: Start with Security a Guide for Business
• IRS: Don’t Take the Bait
• NIST: Small Business Information Security – The Fundamentals