A terrible cyber-attack would be if the IRS was hacked by spam emails that had bugs in them. Everyone in the entire country would be affected. Any and all personal information that the IRS has would be compromised. Including but not limited to everyone’s social security numbers. People’s social security numbers could be stolen and maybe even sold to the highest bidder. It would also affect everyone’s taxes; meaning they could either get no tax return or less than they were supposed to get. For college students, their FAFSA would be affected. They would either get no financial aid, get very little, or maybe even get a lot. The hackers could steal all the money the IRS has. Also, if the IRS was hacked the hackers could also possibly delete the debt people owe. The IRS also has information on institutions and companies and their information could be stolen and sold or even altered in some way.

Yes, it possible that it could have been prevented. I’m not sure, but I think the IRS does not accept anything by email from anyone except within the agency. If that is true it could possibly be because they are afraid that this very situation could happen. The IRS is a government agency, so I would like to believe they take every single precaution to avoid this very problem form ever occurring. When sending a document to the IRS they need to be either faxed or mailed. Also, the IRS sends out documents via mail and fax never by mail.