UA: W-2 portal saw 'suspicious activity'

Web access promptly cut, school says

FAYETTEVILLE -- Employees at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville were notified last month of "suspicious activity" relating to an online portal for workers to access W-2 tax information.

"Based on information received from our third-party service provider, the suspicious activity involved attempts to access or download W-2 information from the service provider's web site," the university's top human resources officer, Debbie McLoud, told employees in a Feb. 24 email.

Concerns involve unauthorized persons using the information to fraudulently file tax returns or obtain refunds, UA spokesman Mark Rushing said in a statement Friday.

Fewer than 30 employees have been notified by the IRS of an unauthorized return or attempt at filing a return, Rushing said. But the full extent of the problem may not be known until after tax filing season, he said.

"We do not expect any employee will lose their refund or be harmed financially," Rushing said.

Equifax Workforce Solutions provided the online service, Rushing said, adding that the suspicious activity did not involve any university systems.

Rushing said that after a few employees in a short time period notified the university of their concerns, the university called the vendor and was told of the attempts to access or download information.

The online portal was shut down immediately, according to Rushing. He said UA has heard from fewer than 130 people reporting possible suspicious activity.

"However, any breach like this is unacceptable, no matter how many employees are affected, so we are working closely with the vendor to address the problem, assist those impacted, and prevent such occurrences moving forward," Rushing said.

In a statement, Equifax said it is investigating "alleged unauthorized access to our online portal where a person or persons using stolen credentials accessed W-2 information of a small number of individuals."

The company "has no reason to believe that its systems were compromised or that it was the source of the information used to gain access to the online portal," the statement said. The company is working with "our clients and law enforcement," according to the statement.

The university has notified the state's legislative auditor as well as the UA System's internal auditor about the security issue, Rushing said.

Equifax Workforce Solutions, the provider of the access portal, is providing identity theft protection at no charge in response to the security issues, Rushing said, while the university is also offering identity theft protection "beyond the coverage provided by the vendor."

Metro on 03/11/2017

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