IRS renews cybersecurity push for tax pros

The Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners have revived their summertime campaign to encourage tax professionals to safeguard confidential client information against identity theft.

The effort coincides with the start of the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums on Tuesday in New Orleans. A series of advisories from the IRS and Security Summit partners in state tax agencies and tax prep firms and software companies will run for five consecutive weeks each Tuesday.

"The Security Summit plays a key role in protecting federal and state tax filings from identity thieves. Their work continues to strengthen our systems against fraudulent tax returns," said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a statement. "Tax professionals also form a critical part of our defenses. The sensitive financial and tax information they hold is a tempting target. It's critical that those handling sensitive tax information, especially smaller practices, stay current and keep their systems safe."

This marks the eighth year that the Security Summit partners have worked to raise awareness about these issues through the annual "Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself" campaign. This summer's campaign focuses on reminding tax pros to watch out for emerging vulnerabilities.

The tax pro security focus will be featured at this summer's Nationwide Tax Forums, beginning Tuesday in New Orleans and continuing through August in Atlanta, the Washington, D.C. area., San Diego and Orlando. The IRS also reminded tax pros that registration deadlines are quickly approaching for several of the forums.

The forums will feature several specific sessions to help educate the tax professional community on security-related topics. Several sessions will be available in Spanish.

This year's forums will also include a special early morning session to help tax pros understand how to prepare a Written Information Security Plan, or WISP. Working together, the Security Summit tax professional working group members created a sample WISP to help their colleagues.