Australia’s Assistant Treasurer, Nick Sherry, has referred to an Australian
Taxation Office (ATO) submission to a Parliamentary inquiry highlighting the
growing dangers of cyber crime.
While there were dangers to the financial and tax security of individual Australians
and also to government agencies, the Assistant Treasurer reassured that there is a
wide range of actions underway to educate the community and crack down on such
illegal behaviour.
"There has been a 31% increase in recent years in scammers and hackers
targeting the Tax Office's computer systems," Nick Sherry said. "These
incidents include attempts to phish for information and malicious software attacks,
such as viruses and trojans."
"In addition, a number of email scams claiming to offer a Tax Office refund
have been phishing for individual victims," he continued. "More than
90 per cent of tax returns are lodged electronically and the use of the internet
by taxpayers is continuing to grow - so everyone should be aware of the potential
dangers."
He added that "some tax phishing scams are quite sophisticated - one recent
case from a server based in the Ukraine lured victims by a bogus website that
looked identical to the ATO website."
The ATO was said to have put in place a wide range of initiatives to counter financial
and tax cyber crime including the innovative use of internet banner ads during
relevant Google word searches and direct email advice to domestic and international
students. Since 1 July 2008, it was disclosed, ATO has successfully finalised
35 prosecutions - resulting in 29 custodial sentences and AUD1.5m (USD1.25m)
in reparation orders.
"The Tax Office is well resourced with specialist IT staff dedicated to
the detection and follow-up of cyber crime," said Nick Sherry. "The
Tax Office places a heavy emphasis on prevention of cyber crime and is actively
involved in educating internet users about the potential risks."
In particular, it was emphasised that ATO emails or SMS messages will never
ask for anybody’s personal information, such as credit card details, tax
file number, date of birth or passwords. If an individual felt that they might
have been the victim or attempted target of a financial or tax cyber crime,
they were advised to contact ATO as soon as possible.
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