Payroll Bandits Strike Tech Firm Seagate

An employee at the data storage provider unknowingly handed off to a hacker the W-2 tax documents for all current and past employees. A fraudulent phishing email lured the staffer into sending the forms, which contain personal data that is valuable to identity thieves in the business of filing for bogus refunds.

Seagate spokesman Eric DeRitis said, “The information was sent by an employee who believed the phishing email was a legitimate internal company request.”

Asked via email how many former and current employees may have been impacted, DeRitis declined to be specific.

“We’re not giving that out publicly — only to federal law enforcement,” he said. “It’s accurate to say several thousand. But less 10,000 by a good amount.”

Seagate learned of the incident about a week after security researcher Brian Krebs warned readers to watch for email phishing scams targeting finance and HR personnel that spoof a letter from the organization’s CEO and request all employee W-2 forms.