Mandiant report & press conference on the South Carolina Department of Revenue cyber hacking incident

The released version of the Mandiant report can be found here.  Not much volume in the report.  It appears to be more of an executive summary.  The entire document is only 4 pages long (and one of those pages is the cover page).

But it doesn’t really matter much since the report mostly focuses on who did what, how they did it and when they did it.  I am sure the law enforcement types will be very interested in this type of information.  But for those of us concerned about protecting ourselves from the perils of this incident there simply isn’t any useful information here.

The press conference (see below) provided more interesting revelations.

The state confirmed that bank account numbers were in fact stolen. 

Apparently everyone affected by this data theft will be contacted by the state.  The state has indicated that they have a much better idea of exactly who is affected.  It appears that only taxpayers who filed electronically were exposed.  Paper return filers appear to be unaffected.  I hope the state will implement some sort of public relations campaign to reassure taxpayers that electronic filing and direct deposit will be a safe and secure process going forward.  You can see how the public might arrive at the conclusion that it is safer to mail a paper return and receive a paper refund check.  Tax On Wheels, LLC has always encouraged clients to e-file and use direct deposit and direct draft to receive refunds and settle balances due.  It would be a shame to see 20 years of progress lost to this incident.

The only other big announcement is that the director of the SC Department of Revenue will commit hara-kiri effective the end of the year by resigning.

Stay tuned for our client recommendations related to this incident, we are still researching the details but we hope to post the recommendations in the next day or two (maybe three with the holidays).

Other than that just see the press conference for yourself and form your own opinions.