As this site has done in 2016 and 2017, DataBreaches.net will maintain a list of entities that disclose that they have become victims of a W-2 phishing or business email compromise (BEC) attack. For 2016, we compiled 175 incidents (although some of them didn’t become public knowledge until 2017), and for 2017, we had 204 incidents – a number that very closely matches what the government subsequently reported from their records.
How many incidents will we find in 2018, and how many individuals will potentially be at risk of tax refund fraud from this type of scam?
As in past years, the list will be alphabetized, which loses the chronology but makes it a bit easier for me to search for specific entities as I’m updating the list. Links are to media coverage or reports of the breach, and the number affected, if revealed, is in parentheses for the entry.
Throughout the season, look for Steve Ragan of Salted Hash to provide some summary updates on how many are being affected.
If you become aware of any W-2 incidents that I don’t have on this list, please let me know via the Comments section for this post, Twitter (@pogowasright) or email me at breaches[at]protonmail[dot]ch.
So here we go…… THE 2018 LIST:
- ABC Bus Companies
- Albert Lea (City) (330)
- ASI Construction, LLC
- Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
- Austin Diagnostic Clinic Association
- Cactus Wellhead
- Caroline County, MD
- Charlotte Housing Authority, NC (341)
- City of Batavia, IL (268)
- City of Keokuk, IA
- City of Pittsburg, KS
- Curtis Lumber (trying to determine if this was W-2 phishing)
- Enumclaw,WA
- GreyHealth Group (683)
- Kinetics Systems, Inc., CA
- Laufer Group International (240)
- Los Angeles Philharmonic
- NFP Casualty & Property
- North Beach School District, WA
- Purchase Line School District (trying to determine if this was W-2 phishing)
- REDICO
- Rockdale Independent School District
- Scottsboro City Schools
- TerraSond
- TravelCorp
- Waldo County, ME (100)
- Wallace Community College of Selma